BSRM Ltd, the biggest steelmaker in Bangladesh, said its sales dropped in the first half of the current financial year, suffered by reduced demand amid the economic slowdown.
The Chattogram-based steelmaker recorded Tk 1,961 crore in sales in the October-December period of financial 2023-24, down 14 percent year-on-year.
Including the second quarter, billet and rod sales of BSRM Ltd declined 8.5 percent year-on-year to hit Tk 3,995 crore in the July-December period.
Despite the fall, the company managed to return to profit during the period due to a reduction in raw material, net finance and administrative costs, according to its financial statement released yesterday.
The steelmaker, which controls one-fourth of Bangladesh’s roughly 60 lakh tonne annual steel market, reported Tk 186 crore in net profit in the first six months of the financial year, recovering from losses of Tk 116 crore suffered during the same period a year ago.
The company’s earnings grew 153 percent year-on-year to Tk 132 crore in three months to the end of last December.
“We could adjust prices to some extent. A reduced cost of raw materials helped us recover from losses,” said Tapan Shengupta, deputy managing director of BSRM.
He said the overall economic condition caused the slowdown in sales of steel products.
The current steel-making capacity of the BSRM is 18 lakh tonnes and it is expected to rise to 24 lakh tonnes this calendar year, according to the official.
Shares of BSRM closed unchanged at Tk 90 on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) yesterday.
However, shares of BSRM Steels, a concern of BSRM, soared after it returned to the black powered by higher profit in the October-December period.
BSRM Steels gained 9.9 percent to close at Tk 63.30 on the DSE yesterday.
The company posted Tk 154.6 crore in net profit in the July-October period of the current financial year ending in June compared to only Tk 9 crore in the same period a year earlier.
source: dailystar.net
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