Tata Metaliks

Tata Metaliks is one of the biggest pig iron manufacturing and selling companies of India. And it was in the limelight post its ‘turnaround’ Q1FY15 numbers. Its consolidated net profit for the quarter came in at Rs.34 crore v/s loss of Rs.13 crore in previous Q1 and sequentially, the growth was flat. But a look at the net sales shows a different picture, which for current Q1 came in at Rs.356 crore and this was just 4% more than previous Q1 – yet the turnaround happened YoY. Thus the truth lay in the operating cost, which was down 11%, led by lower raw material cost. And QoQ, though net profit was flat, net sales actually fell 7% - once again lower costs helped shore the bottomline.

Thus more than anything else, better cost management is what helped the company end Q1 on such an optimistic note. The company as at end of FY14 had a debt of around Rs.200 crore and interest outgo for the current Q1 was at Rs.11 crore, up 7% (YoY). A subsidiary of Tata Steel (which holds a 46.66% stake), has its manufacturing plant at Kharagpur, West Bengal, India with an annual production capacity of 345,000 tonnes. As a part of backward integration, Tata Metaliks has set up a 4,00,000 tpa Sinter Plant to improve its productivity and cost competitiveness.