IPCL first quarter profit down

By Our Staff Correspondent

MUMBAI, JULY 21. Indian Petrochemicals Corporation (IPCL) has announced a net profit of Rs. 12.67 crores for the three months ended June 30, 2001 against Rs. 35.47 crores in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Net sales for the quarter was Rs. 1,099.2 crores (Rs. 1,067.66 crores) and other income Rs. 26.91 crores (Rs. 27.69 crores). The operating profit for the period under reference was at Rs. 207.73 crores (Rs. 258.1 crores).

According to a company press release, the drop in the operating margins and net profit is due to softening of product prices in both domestic and international markets coupled with increase in feedstock prices like naphtha, propane and C2/C3.

The company produced a total of 3.21 lakh tonnes of major saleable products during the quarter from all the three complexes against 3.34 lakh tonnes in the corresponding period of the previous year. The combined capacity utilisation of all operating plants stood at 97 per cent for the quarter.

A record 3.31 lakh tonnes of products reached customers as against 3 lakh tonnes sold during similar period in the previous year, thus registering a growth of 10 per cent in sales volume. The company is currently focusing on improving the performance by laying continued thrust on supply chain management, capacity utilisation, maximising sales revenue in terms of value and volume by strategic positioning of the products in domestic as well as overseas markets. Emphasis is also laid on optimising the logistic and overall productivity in all the manufacturing units.

Hindustan Zinc

Hindustan Zinc (HZL) has announced a net profit before tax of Rs. 282.22 crores for the year 2000-01, up 55 per cent over the previous year. The company has also announced a dividend of 12.5 per cent. The turnover at Rs. 1613.05 crores was the highest ever achieved by the company.

The expansion programme to increase zinc metal production by 17,000 tpa was successfully completed during the year. With this, the total installed capacity has become 1.69 lakh tonnes.

The chairman of the company, Mr. K. Seshavataram said that the Government's approval for setting up a one lakh tonne greenfield zinc smelter project at Kapasan was received and the project execution was likely to commence in the third quarter of the current year after completion of disinvestment. The board has also approved the proposal in principle for putting up a 70,000 tpa scrap battery recycling project.

While addressing the shareholders at the annual general meeting, the chairman said that the operations of the nickel technology proving plant (TPP) established at RRL Bhubaneshwar has proved that the technology is viable to extract nickel from chromite overburden at Sukinda, Orissa.

An application is being processed to get this process technology registered under IPR. The process technology selection for the hot metal extraction from the waste generated after the nickel extraction is already on hand and this will be suitably incorporated in the techno-economical feasibility study which will be started soon.

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