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| (From left) Visa Steel MD Vishal Agarwal, director M.S. Verma and chairman Vishambhar Saran in Calcutta on Tuesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury |
Calcutta, May 23: Visa Steel’s pig iron business spearheaded its surge in earnings during the last financial year. The company reported a 90 per cent growth in profit after tax and a 53 per cent growth in revenue.
It had commissioned the blast furnace in March 2005, ensuring that the benefit is reflected in last year’s fiscal performance.
Net profit grew from Rs 6.6 crore to Rs 12.5 crore, while revenue went up at Rs 385 crore against Rs 252 crore in 2005-6.
Visa Steel’s total hot metal production was at around 150,000 tonne. The company has set a target of 200,000 tonne for this year.
Announcing the results here today, chairman Vishambhar Saran said the performance was commendable as the company was still setting up projects.
It is setting up a half-a-million tonne fully integrated special and stainless steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa. The unit will be ready by the end of 2007.
Visa, which issued an initial public offering to fund the expansion programme, is setting up facilities in stages.
For instance, the 400,000 stamp charged coke oven plant has been commissioned this year.
The revenue from this business will be reflected during this year, said Vishal Agarwal, managing director of Visa Steel.
In the pipeline are a 50,000-tonne ferro chrome unit, a 300,000-tonne sponge iron plant and a 50-mega watt waste-heat recovery unit.
In order to insulate itself from the volatility of raw material prices, Visa Steel is planning mining of iron ore, chrome ore and coal.
A part of the Patrapara coal block at Talcher has been allotted to the company. It is also developing chrome ore through a subsidiary company, Ghotarina Minerals Ltd.
The company has entered into a long-term arrangement to source coking coal from Australia.
At present, Visa Steel sources iron ore from state-run OMC and OMDC and private sector Sesa Goa, since it is yet to start mining of iron ore.
