BENGALURU, Aug 11 (Reuters) – India’s Jindal Steel and Power (JNSP.NS) reported a 15% drop in first-quarter revenue on Friday, damage by the rise in bills and fall in metal costs.

The New Delhi-based firm’s consolidated revenue after tax fell to 16.92 billion rupees ($204.31 million) within the three months ended June 30 from 19.90 billion rupees a 12 months earlier.

While home demand has been rising for Indian metals firms, subdued demand from high client China remained a drag on costs, analysts mentioned.

Jindal Steel, which has an annual crude metal manufacturing capability of 9.6 million metric tons every year, mentioned general gross sales grew 6% year-on-year. The share of exports stood at 10%.

India’s metal business, grappling with a stoop in costs, was additional hit when an export tax on sure metal intermediaries in May final 12 months. The tax was withdrawn later in November.

However, the export responsibility resulted in a 55% fall in India’s metal exports in fiscal 2023, the corporate mentioned.

Gross income dropped 1.5% to 145.39 billion rupees, down for the fourth straight quarter, whereas complete bills rose practically 3%.

As a part of plans to cut back reliance on third-party suppliers, Jindal Steel mentioned it has secured three new non-coking coal mines in FY 2022-23, which can doubtless begin operations in FY 2023-24.

It additional mentioned home demand for metal is anticipated to witness an annual growth of 8-9 MT within the subsequent two monetary years.

Bigger rivals, JSW Steel’s (JSTL.NS) first-quarter revenue practically tripled on larger gross sales, whereas Tata Steel (TISC.NS) posted a 92% stoop in revenue, damage by the decrease costs of alloy and bills associated to a pension scheme in Britain.

Shares of Jindal Steel closed 3.23% larger at 698.20 rupees forward of the outcomes.

($1 = 82.8170 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami

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