December 03, 2008

BSL bottom line to remain intact - MD

Mr Neeraj Singal MD of Bhushan Steel & Strips informs that it is going to rollback between INR 500 to INR 1,000 on the corrugated galvanized sheets but it will not have a very big impact on the bottom line.

Mr Singal said that "The major impact is coming on the long product which is the TMT bars where the prices are likely to go down by INR 2,000 and primarily it is being done by TATA Steel, SAIL and RINL. As far as our product range is concerned, which is primarily flat product, we are going to rollback between INR 500 to INR 1,000 on the corrugated galvanized sheets, so I do not think it will have a very big impact on our bottom line."

He said "We had a meeting with the government recently, it was agreed that the HR coil prices would not be increased for April 2008, so by having a INR 500 to INR 1,000 rollback on the corrugated sheets, it will not have a major impact, maybe it should be a 0.02% or a 0.03%, because the corrugated sheets is a very small percentage of our total product line."

Mr Singal further added that "Definitely the raw material prices and the coal prices have gone up, but since the inflation is high and at the moment it’s too much of a pressure on the government, we may hold up the prices for maybe one month but it cannot hold for a very long time. Regarding the cold rolled and galvanized business, if there is a hot rolled price increase, we have to pass it on to the customers, and the other integrated plant where we are making the billets, where we have iron ore and coal, if the prices of iron ore has to be factored in INR 3,000 to INR 4,000 then the price increase is required."