Steel sector's perforamce excellent in Q3 ending Dec'06: Paswan

New Delhi, Jan 12 (UNI) Despite massive outflow of funds on account of investments, the public-sector Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) is poised to earn substantial profit for the quarter ending December 2006, Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan today announced.

Addressing newsmen on the annual performance of the steel sector here, Mr Paswan said the performance of SAIL has improved on account of its higher production and sales figures.

The analysis of the performance indicate that just about 29 per cent of the profit enhancement could be attributed to price rise net of input and cost escalation, while 71 per cent of the profitability was on account of management initiatives like product-mix improvement, improvement in techno-economics and better financial management.

He said the total Profit Before Tax (PBT) of profit-making companies under the ministry during the year 2005-06 rose to Rs 11,569.29 crore from 5,622.37 crore in 2003-04.

The contribution made to the government by these companies during 2005-06 saw a markable rise to Rs 13,363.67 crore as against Rs 5,873.28 crore in the year 2003-04.

Eleven of the fifteen companies under the ministry depicted positive sales growth for the third quarter of 2006-07 as compared to the corresponding period of 2005-06. The cumulative sales figures for the period April-December 2006 for the companies also registered significant increase against the corresponding period of the previous year.

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