INDIA’S Tata Steel, the world’s eighth-largest steelmaker, on Friday (November 9) swung into a surprise quarterly net loss from profit a year earlier, due to falling demand and prices in its key European market.
Tata Steel reported a consolidated net loss of Rs3.64bn ($67m/£) from July to September, from Rs2.12bn ($38m/£24m) over the same period a year earlier, while sales rose four per cent to Rs338.67bn ($61m/£38m).
Steelmakers around the world have been suffering from a slowdown in demand as industrial growth loses pace in emerging economies such as India and China and expansion remains sluggish in advanced western economies.
Europeaccounts for about two-thirds of sales and production for the steelmaker, which has an annual capacity of some 28 million tonnes.
Tata Steel, part of the sprawling Tata Group conglomerate, became one of the world’s biggest steelmakers after purchasing the Anglo-Dutch company Corus for $13.7bn (£8.61bn) in 2007.
Corus was rebranded as Tata Steel in September 2010.
India’s industrial activity has been muted, growing 2.7 per cent in August from a year earlier, data showed last month.
The once-booming economy has been hit by a combination of high interest rates, rising input costs, slowing exports, and sluggish investment caused by domestic and overseas concerns about policy and corruption.
