By Neha Arora and Anuran Sadhu
(Reuters) -India’s top steelmaker JSW Steel flagged concerns of cheaper steel imports on Friday after the company beat first-quarter profit estimates.
Indian steelmakers have been under pressure from a surge in low-cost shipments primarily from China, prompting production cuts and job concerns across the industry. The government imposed a temporary 12% import tariff, locally known as safeguard duty in April to curb cheap imports.
Although domestic steel prices improved quarter-on-quarter, they remained below year-ago levels.
“There is a case for the government to consider the safeguard duty favorably, in terms of extension as well as in terms of the overall duty percentage,” Jayant Acharya, chief executive of JSW Steel, said.
Given that many countries are putting trade barriers, lower-priced imports are coming to India, which is impacting sentiment, Acharya said.
He added that some low-priced imports from Russia also require monitoring.
Earlier in the day, JSW Steel reported a consolidated net profit of 21.84 billion rupees ($253.52 million) for the three months ended June 30, exceeding analysts’ average estimate of 20.39 billion rupees, supported by easing raw material costs.
Revenue from operations largely remained flat at 431.47 billion rupees, as weaker year-on-year steel prices offset a 9% rise in sales volumes.
JSW’s total expenses decreased by 3.3% to 403.25 billion rupees, primarily due to a similar decline in the cost of materials consumed.
JSW Steel’s shares closed flat ahead of the quarterly results.
($1 = 86.1475 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru, Neha Arora in New Delhi; Editing by Tasim Zahid, Janane Venkatraman and Harikrishnan Nair)
