Billionaire Sajjan Jindal led JSW Steel Ltd reported a 11.9 per cent rise in net profit for the fourth quarter of the last fiscal as the company benefited from higher sales volume offsetting slump in steel prices and margins.

Net profit stood at Rs 3,741 crore in Q4FY23, compared with Rs 3,343 crore in the same period of the previous year on a consolidated basis. Revenue from the operations stood at Rs 46,962 crore, marginally up from Rs 46,895 crore recorded in Q4FY22.

For the full year, profit was down by 80.2 per cent to Rs 4,139 crore in FY23 compared with Rs 20,938 crore in FY22 as steel prices fell globally after reaching a record high.

Crude steel production and sales stood at 6.77 million tonnes (mt) and 6.7mt respectively compared with 5.98mt production and 6.15mt of sales in Q4FY22. JSW benefited from the gradual ramp-up of 5mt capacity expansion at Dolvi, Maharashtra and increased volume from BPSL, supported by rising apparent Indian steel consumption.

The production volume stood at 24.57mt in FY23, compared with 21.47mt in FY22 while sales were at 22.8mt compared with 19.99mt in FY22. JSW operated at 97 per cent capacity utilisation for the standalone operations in Q4FY23 compared with 93 per cent in Q3FY23. It also benefited from recovery in export volume after the export duty was removed in November 2022.

The board recommended a dividend of Rs 3.4 per share, entailing an outflow of Rs 822 crore.

Healthy cash generation and release of working capital led to improvement in debt profile. Net debt stood at Rs 59,345 crore at the end of March 31, 2023, lower by Rs 10,153 crore from December 31, 2022. It was Rs 56,650 crore at the end of March 31, 2022.

JSW Steel, which spent Rs 14,214 crore on capex in the last fiscal, announced Rs 18,800 crore capex in FY24 to complete brownfield expansion at Vijaynagar and BPSL.

Board changes

Jayant Acharya has been elevated as the joint managing director & CEO of JSW Steel Ltd from Friday. Acharya, who holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering and master’s degree in physics, was the deputy managing director from April 1, 2022.

The board also appointed Gajraj Singh Rathore as an additional director on the board. Rathore would be designated as the chief operating officer of the company.