SAIL 'steels' the show, tops world in profit stakes

Steel Authority Of India Ltd. | Steel & Iron Products | Metals & Mining | BSE: 500113 | NSE: SAIL

09 Oct 2009 Evaluate

Government-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL), the country’s largest steel producer, has emerged as the top profit-making steel company in the first six months of the calendar year, leaving behind global majors like ArcelorMittal, Posco, Bao Steel and Nippon.

An analysis of the financial performance of nine leading global companies during January-June 2009 showed that only three of them registered profits, with SAIL’s profit being the highest. SAIL reported a net profit of $571 million in the January-June period of 2009, while other steel companies reported huge losses.

Only Korean steel producer Posco managed to come close to SAIL by reporting a net profit of $564 million in the first half of the current calendar year. Tata Steel, another major Indian producer, also managed to do reasonably well, with a net profit of $458 million in the said period.

SAIL, with a 14-million-tonne (mt) capacity, is the world’s 21st steel company in terms of manufacturing capacity — much behind sector leader ArcelorMittal, which has a capacity of 103 mt. The L N Mittal-owned company reported a net loss of $1,855 million during January-June 2009, while Nippon reported a loss of $1,043 million, Severstal a loss of $944 million and US Steel a loss of $831 million.

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