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Informist, Thursday, May. 1, 2025

By Anand JC

NEW DELHI – Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. Thursday said the recently imposed 12% safeguard duty across select steel categories is not enough compared with the other geographies. However, the safeguard duty will reduce India's steel imports, and with growing domestic consumption, Indian players can absorb the additional demand, the company said in a post-earnings analyst conference.

Following a long-pending demand from the steel industry, the Indian government in April imposed a 12% duty on steel imports for 200 days to protect the domestic players from a surge in imports, especially from countries like China. While demand for steel improved 12% to 152 million tonnes in 2024-25 (Apr-Mar), China's share in imports by India remained high, the company said. India was a net importer of steel for the second year in a row in FY25.

"During the quarter, domestic HRC (hot rolled coil) and TMT (Thermomechanically Treated steel) prices saw mixed movement with HRC prices rising marginally on a quarter-on-quarter basis in anticipation of safeguard duty which eventually was brought into effect on 21st April," the management said. While Chinese steel prices inched up recently, the company expects it to remain stable going forward, at least in Apr-Jun.

The O.P. Jindal group company disclosed its March quarter earnings late Wednesday. It reported a consolidated net loss of INR 3.4 billion on revenues of INR 131.8 billion. Its capacity utilisation improved to 85% in FY25 from 83% a year ago due to operational improvements, the company said. Jindal Steel had originally targetted to save $10 per tonne for its coaking coal consumption in the March quarter, but managed to reduce it by $11, it told analysts. 

In its overseas business, Jindal Steel took an impairment of INR 11.3 billion for its Australian mine assets. "With this, we believe that the remaining value of the investment in Australian business is significantly lower than the value of our assets here," it said. The company does not expect to book further impairments for the asset going ahead. 

The company has already recieved permission to mine at Utkal B1 block. The mine has a total reserve of around 148 million tonnes with annual environmental clearance to mine 5.5 million tonnes. The company said it is committed to deliver around 5 million tonnes of output in the second half of FY26.

Jindal Steel's net working capital for FY25 fell by INR 31.5 billion and for March quarter by INR 27 billion due to several initiatives, the company said. In the reporting quarter, Jindal Steel's net debt was 1.26 times its EBITDA, down from 1.40 times in the December quarter, despite incurring a capital expenditure of INR 26.1 billion in the latest quarter. The company told analysts it wants to keep the net debt-to-EBITDA below 1.5 times across all business cycles. 

Wednesday, shares of the company had closed at INR 895.65 on the National Stock Exchange, unchanged from the previous close.  End

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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