BENGALURU: JSW Steel warned on Friday of a sharp spike in coking coal prices in the third quarter, even as it reported a more than threefold jump in second-quarter profit.
Coking coal prices, a key raw material for steelmakers, are expected to rise USD25 a ton in the October-December period, chief executive Jayant Acharya said on a post-earnings call. The company, India’s largest steelmaker by capacity, expects to offset the cost pressures with healthy domestic steel demand, which is expected to grow at 7-8 percent in fiscal 2027, from strong construction and infrastructure activity, Acharya said. The company also expects iron ore prices to rise marginally. “Our focus is to use more domestic coking coal, which can give us a cost advantage,” Acharya added. The Mumbai-based company’s consolidated net profit surged to 52.79 billion rupees (USD555.86 million) for the quarter ended September 30, from 16.23 billion rupees a year ago.
Analysts at Emkay Global and Elara Securities said JSW Steel was among the better-positioned Indian steelmakers reporting this quarter due to its higher exposure to flat steel products, whose prices have proved more resilient than those of long steel products amid healthy demand from the automotive, pipe and construction sectors.
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