NMDC Q4 profit up 31% to Rs 1,453 crore

New Delhi: State-owned miner NMDC Tuesday reported an over 31 per cent rise in standalone net profit at Rs 1,453.77 crore for quarter ended March 2019.

The company had posted a standalone profit of Rs 1,105.85 crore in the year-ago quarter, NMDC said in a filing to the BSE.

Total income during the March quarter declined to Rs 3,839.40 crore from Rs 4,053.16 crore in January-March 2018, the statement said.

Total expenses for the latest quarter also fell to Rs 1,641.65 crore from Rs 2,059.84 crore in the year-ago period.

The company's production of iron ore during the fourth quarter is 10.59 million tonne, a decrease of 7 per cent over the corresponding period last year (CPLY) while sales were at 10.17 MT which was about 3 per cent less than that of CPLY, NMDC said.

In a press briefing, NMDC chairman N Baijendra Kumar said "there was a decrease in output because of issues at Donimalai where the production is stalled at present".

Last year, NMDC had suspended iron ore-mining at the Donimalai mine in Karnataka following the state government's decision to impose 80 per cent premium on the iron ore sales from the mine. On Nagarnar steel plant in Chhattisgarh, the chairman said the company has planned Rs 2,200 crore capex for the current fiscal. "Till now Rs 15,300 crore has already been spent on construction of Nagarnar steel plant," he said.

NMDC is country's single largest iron ore producer, presently producing about 30 million tonnes of iron ore from three fully mechanised mines, according to its website.