State-run steel maker SAIL today reported a 28 per cent decline in its net profit at Rs 1,507.12 crore for the quarter ended March 31,2011,hit hard by higher coking coal prices and wages. The company had recorded Rs 2,084.90 crore net profit in the corresponding quarter last year. The total income of the company during the January-March quarter of 2010-11 was at Rs 12,166.43 crore,marginally lower than Rs 12,229.76 crore in the same quarter last year. The main reason for the dip in profit is coking coal prices. Last year the prices were $115 tonnes per tonne,while this year (2010-11),the coking coal prices were $212 per tonne on an average, Steel Authority of Indias chairman C S Verma told reporters here. For the full year 2010-11, he company posted a net profit of Rs 4,914.29 crore,a decline of about 29 per cent vis-a-vis Rs 6,790.78 crore it had reported in 2009-10. During the year,the company produced 12.89 million tonnes of steel,while it was 3.43 million tonnes during the quarter ended March 31,2011.
