JSW Steel Eyes Strong Ebitda Growth In Q4 Driven By Higher Demand, Reduced Input Cost
The company witnessed a sharp decline in its net profit for Q3, slipping 70.3% year-on-year at Rs 717 crore. Ebitda also declined 22.3% to Rs 5,579 crore.
JSW Steel expects robust Ebitda growth in Q4, driven by strong demand, higher production volumes, and falling raw material costs, according to the company’s Managing Director and CEO, Jayant Acharya. The company witnessed a sharp decline in its net profit for Q3, slipping 70.3% year-on-year at Rs 717 crore. Ebitda also declined 22.3% to Rs 5,579 crore.
Commenting on the company’s prospects in the final quarter of FY25, Acharya told NDTV Profit that Q4 is a seasonally good quarter with high demand. He emphasised that the JSW’s Q4 performance will also get a good push from better production volumes and dwindling raw material costs.
“(There is) a seasonally good demand in Q4 as well as higher volumes from JSW because of our capacity. The cost will go down as we are expecting raw material costs, iron more specifically, to correct. Because there has been a correction in the international market, I think we will see some corrections in domestic markets as well, and that should play into the cost,” he said.
The top executive also explained the factors he expects to drive JSW Steel’s Ebitda growth in Q4.
“Coking coal costs have gone down in Q3 and we see a further drop in Q4. We see more input volumes because of anticipated trade measures that people expect. So that would play and support the markets. So volume growth and lower costs will support the absolute Ebitda growth,” he said.
Acharya talked about China dumping its steel in India, making the import of the metal cheaper in the absence of a clear anti-dumping duty. He mentioned that authorities have initiated measures regarding the situation and a decision might be taken in February.
“We are in touch with the trade investigation authorities. They have initiated measures on safeguards and anti-dumping and the process is ongoing. We are hopeful that some results should be announced maybe in the first half of February,” he said.
The JSW Steel CEO expected a 25% safeguard duty on the import of steel, in line with other countries of the world.
“I would say that the way the rest of the world has used the duties and we have references to that in America, we have in Europe, we have in some other countries as well. They have all implemented 25% (duties) and I think that is something that we should look at,” Acharya said.
Shares of JSW Steel Ltd. closed at Rs 916.60 apiece on the NSE on Monday, 1.7% lower than its previous close. Meanwhile, benchmark Nifty 50 ended the day’s trade 1.14% lower at 22,829.15 points.
