Shares of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) were down sharply on Tuesday after the steelmaker posted a steep decline in third-quarter profit.

What Happened: Steel Authority of India reported a consolidated net profit of ₹422.92 crore for the December quarter, 22% lower than ₹542.18 crore in the same quarter last year, dragged down by inventory costs.

Revenue from operations for the quarter stood at ₹23,348.64 crore, down 6% from ₹25,042.10 crore a year ago, SAIL said in an exchange filing.

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SAIL’s revenue from its Bhilai plant stood at about ₹6,500 crore, down 12.1% year-over-year, while that of Rourkela and Bokaro units came in at ₹5,863.3 crore and ₹6,003.6 crore, respectively.

Faltering Asset Sales: The Centre in January shelved the disinvestment of the Salem Steel plant, the company’s stainless steel unit, following a lack of interest from bidders. In 2022, the privatisation of SAIL’s Bhadravathi plant was also scrapped due to inadequate bidder interest.

Revenue from Salem Steel plant jumped 16% to ₹515.2 crore in the quarter.

Crude steel production in the quarter came at 4.75 million tonnes versus 4.71 million tonnes reported in the same quarter last year. Sales volume fell to 3.81 million tonnes as compared to 4.15 million tonnes in Q3 FY23.

The public sector company also declared an interim dividend of ₹1 per equity share of ₹10 each. The record date for the purpose of payment of the interim dividend is February 20 this year.

Price Action: SAIL’s share price was down 4.11% at ₹117.70 near the start of trade on Tuesday.

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