India's SAIL posts quarterly profit drop on inventory costs

Steel Authority of India

28/05/2025 16:14

May 28 (Reuters) - Steel Authority of India (SAIL) SAIL.NS reported a lower fourth-quarter adjusted profit on Wednesday, hurt by inventory costs.

The state-owned firm's profit before exceptional items and tax dropped 13% to 15.94 billion Indian rupees ($187 million) in the quarter ended March 31.

Revenue grew 5% to 293.16 billion rupees. But its expenses rose about 6% due to an inventory charge in the current quarter that it had not incurred a year before.

KEY CONTEXT

SAIL's results come a month after the government imposed a temporary 12% tax on some steel imports, known locally as a safeguard duty, to protect local producers who had to scale down operations and mull job cuts due to an influx of cheaper imports.

Earlier this month, industry leader JSW Steel JSTL.NS posted quarterly profit that missed analysts' estimates as weaker prices weighed.

However, a decline in costs of iron ore and coking coal — key steelmaking ingredients — helped offset the impact of weak prices for Tata Steel TISC.NS.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 months)
Estimates (next 12 months)
Analysts' sentiment
RIC
PE
EV/EBITDA
Revenue growth (%)
Profit growth (%)
Mean rating*
No. of analysts
Stock to price target**
Div yield (%)
Steel Authority of India
SAIL.NS
16.85
8.06
6.92
54.21
Sell
10
1.19
1.56
JSW Steel
JSTL.NS
18.31
9.07
13.91
142.21
Hold
32
0.99
0.28
Tata Steel
TISC.NS
15.74
7.75
7.35
138.63
Buy
31
1.00
2.23
Jindal Steel And Power
JNSP.NS
14.62
8.03
14.89
46.93
Buy
29
0.97
0.21

* The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE

-- All data from LSEG

-- $1 = 85.3840 Indian rupees

JANUARY-MARCH STOCK PERFORMANCE https://tmsnrt.rs/4mAhhy9

 (Reporting by Manvi Pant and Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru; Editing by Sahal Muhammed)

 ((Manvi.Pant@thomsonreuters.com; +918447554364;))