Ennore Foundries wipes out loss; bullish on export hike

Chennai, Apr 28 (UNI) Ennore Foundries Limited (EFL), the foundry arm of the Hinduja Group, has wiped out its entire accumulated losses and has renewed efforts to give more thrust to raise export volumes.

Turnover during the year was Rs 3355.42 million compared to Rs 2252.41 million last year, registering 49 per cent growth, EFL Managing Director V Mahadevan told reporters here today.

Profit before tax went up by 58 per cent to Rs 224.13 million as against Rs 141.95 million last year.

Profit after tax was Rs 139.63 million (Rs 130.85 million last year). This was after the company wiped out all the accumulated loss.

He said the production of castings during the year stood at 65,938 tonne, which was 50 per cent higher than the last financial year's output of 43,985 tonne, mainly due to larger scale of operations. This followed the acquisition of Ductron Castings Unit (DCU) from Ashok Leyland, apart from efficiency improvements.

The company had targeted 25 per cent growth in output this year and investment of around Rs 25 crore had already been committed to technology upgradation and capacity optimisation at existing units.

About export plans, Mr Mahadevan said the company could not push up its exports due to capacity constraints.

'We are confident of pushing up export volumes from 3000 million tonne to 5000 million tonne this year as the foundry's output potential is very high', he added.

Segmental focus for export would be SG Iron Castings-Housings, Low Volume and Heavy Castings, Blocks and Heads and Non-cored Castings.

UNI GV AA 1812