Merchant coke producer Gujarat NRE PAT from Australia Rs 120 cr

Kolkata : Merchant coke producer Gujarat NRE Coke Limited?s (GNCL) Australian Operations has reported Half yearly Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs. 120 crores.

The stand alone profits of the company for the half year ended 30th Sept’10 has been Rs. 29.96 crores.

Last week, Australian subsidiary-Gujarat NRE Coking Coal Ltd-wherein GNCL holds 77% stake, reported a net profit of A$ 29.4 million ( Rs 120.67 crores approx) for the half year ended Sep 2010 as compared to loss of $6.1 million (Rs 23.69 crores) for the half year ended 30th September 2009,? the company said on Monday.

?The same is being attributed to the fact that the Australian subsidiary has been successful in ramping its production to around 2 million tonnes per annum and simultaneously bring down its production cost and a robust coking coal price in the current FY.

The positive effect of Australian results would be visible in the consolidated balance sheet of Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd. since it holds 77% stake therein,? the company said in a statement.

The company is in the midst of mine development with further investments in excess of $ 350 million to increase production to 6 Million Tonnes per annum by 2014-15.

?We have already sold a few shipments of unwashed coking coal to third party customers in China during the current quarter. With the expected ramp up in product and continued decrease in the production cost and the sustained coking coal price of $200 + per tonne, the profitability is expected to improve further in the coming years,? the company said.

Speaking on the results, chairman Arun Kumar Jagatramka said: ?GNCL holds controlling stake in the 2 Australian coking coal mines with a target production of 6 million tonnes of coking coal in 4 years time.?

?I personally believe that decade to 2020 would see much higher investor returns than what we saw in the earlier decade, but this does not come without the current perceived pains that we are happy to endure and always look forward to having such investors who are prepared to be on this journey with us,? he added.

Gujarat NRE Coke Limited (GNCL) is the largest merchant coke producer in India with capacities of around 1.3 million tonnes per annum. GNCL has also invested in clean energy by establishing 87.50 MW WTG.