OREANDA-NEWS. JSPL's Standalone and Consolidated turnover in Q1, FY 15 grew by 5% and 10% compared to same quarter last year. Company's continued focus on increasing Net Sales Realization (NSR) and Operational Excellence saw EBITDA level in both Standalone and Consolidated cases rise to over 33% compared to 25% & 29% on Standalone and Consolidated basis respectively in Q1, FY 14. JSPL Standalone's PBT and PAT for JSPL increased by 16.2% and 28.2% compared to Q1, FY14. However, a major increase in depreciation and financing costs and restructuring costs of WCL, Australia caused net profit at consolidatedlevel to drop by 20.5% on y-o-y basis. The Cash Profit for both Consolidated and Standalone cases however rose by 23.4% and 41.4% respectively over the same quarter of previous year. Company's EBITDA performance was achieved inspite of disruption to iron ore supply and continued shortage of coal to the newly commissioned JPL's Tamnar Phase II power plant.

Steel

JSPL's new pellet plant with a capacity of 4.5 MTPA went into operation during Q1 FY15; however the production had to be curtailed due to restricted availability of iron ore fines. Both Blast Furnaces and two EAFs were upgraded. With these, the modernisation of Iron & Steel shops at Raigarh was completed and the plant's capacity has been enhanced to 3.5 MTPA as against 3.0 MTP A earlier. JSPL's continued focus on NSR saw it increase by 8% in Q1, FY 15 compared to same quarter last year. The Company continued its relentless effort to reduce its working capital, which resulted in its Finished Good inventory reduce by 27% to an all-time low of 207,731MT.

JSPL's retail sales grew by an impressive 26% during Q1, FY15 compared to Q4, FY14 and by 284% compared to Q1, FY14. With this, the company consolidated its presence in retail market on a country wide basis. Although Rupee's strengthening against USD adversely affected the price competitiveness, JSPL increased their exports by 6% in volume terms during Q1, FY15. Company successfully entered the High Grade plate and structural steel market of US, Canada and Mexico.

Power

Although 3 out of the 4, 600 MW Power Units of JPL under Tamnar Phase II were successfully completed, only one unit was operated. With improved availability of coal and transmission capacity, we are hopeful to operate other units. JPL's Phase - I, 1000 MW plant was operated at 97.8% PLF. The average NSR for Q1, FY 15 of JPL was at Rs. 3.29 compared to Rs. 3.21 in Q1, FY 14.

JSPL's 4x135 MW captive power plant at Dongamuha, achieved substantial improvement in its availability and PLF, as a result of which it posted impressive increase in its profitability. Although, all 6 x 135 MW units of Angul Power plant have been commissioned, the utilization remained low due to restrictions on export of power.

Global Ventures

JSPL Global Venture's SMS plant in Oman was successfully completed in April, 2014 and the billet deliveries to the market started from May, 2014. The plant's PBT in Q1, FY15 increased by 180 % compared to Q1, FY14. However, Company's WCL Australia's coking coal mines continued to make losses due to operational reasons and restructuring costs. A major restructuring of WCL was undertaken under which the manpower has been reduced by 38% compared to Q4, FY 14.