(Reuters) -Tata Steel, India’s second-largest maker of the alloy by market cap, reported a nearly four-fold rise in quarterly profit on Wednesday, as robust demand in its key markets and lower tax expenses helped limit the impact of declining prices.
Its consolidated net profit stood at 31.02 billion rupees ($352.9 million) for the quarter ended September 30, from 8.33 billion rupees a year ago.
Top steelmaker JSW Steel posted a jump in profit for the September quarter last month on increased sales volumes. The company expects higher prices of the alloy in the December quarter.
India, the world’s second-largest producer of steel, has seen declining prices even after the government imposed three-year 11% to 12% import tariffs on some steel products in August.
However, demand at home held firm as manufacturing activity increased.
Tata Steel’s overall tax expenses fell to 10.39 billion rupees from 14.05 billion rupees a year ago.
Core profit, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization for its India operations grew 25% to 86.54 billion rupees.
Its total revenue from operations rose about 9% to 586.89 billion rupees in the reported quarter.
Core profit at its Netherlands operations – its second largest – was 92 million euros ($107 million), from 22 million euros a year ago.
Shares of the company gained about 6% in the July-September period, lower than a 12% rise in shares of JSW Steel and a 13% uptick in Jindal Steel.
Tata Steel shares ended 1.3% lower ahead of its quarterly results.
($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
