Gujarat Coke posts 819 per cent surge in net profit

Kolkata, Nov 1(UNI) Gujarat NRE Coke recorded 819 per cent surge in net profit at Rs 102.75 crore in the second quarter of this fiscal as against Rs. 12.55 crore during the corresponding period last year.

The company, the country's largest independent producer of met coke, also achieved 486 per cent growth in its total income at Rs 496.05 crore during the period, ending September 30, 2008 as against Rs 496.05 crore from Rs 102.07 crore.

The company ended the six-month period of this fiscal with a 356 jump in net profit at Rs 197.15 crore ass against Rs 55.37 crore during the corresponding period perevious year, while its total income shot up by 348 per cent at Rs 873.69 crore from Rs 250.96 crore.

'' We have had another satisfying quarter, '' Gujarat NRE Coke Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Arun Kumar Jagatramka said observing that the fundamentals of the company were not driven by the sagging market sentiment.

Mr Jagatramka said globally there was shortage of good quality Hard Coking coal and met cokes while the company was 'extremely integrated' in operations in the mines in Australia and in the production of coke in India.

'' Naturally, we continue to out perform our own expectations and the results are a mute testimony to these facts, '' he said.

The company was in the process of increasing its metcoke capacity to 2.5 MTPA by December 2010, which included setting up of a Greenfield 1 million tpa plant in Southern India for which the necessary land had already been acquired and initial work had started.

The company is expected to ship one million ton of premium hard coking coal from its Australian mines to India in the current fiscal.

It was also developing its mines in Australia to further increase its production to seven million ton within the next four years.

UNI KDG SJC/src1909