SAIL on Friday posted a 31 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 3,469.88 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, mainly on account of higher income.

The steel giant had clocked Rs 2,647.52 crore net profit during the January-March period of fiscal year 2019-20, Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) said in a regulatory filing.

During the quarter under review, the company’s total income rose to Rs 23,533.19 crore, from Rs 16,574.71 crore in the year-ago period. Total expenses were at Rs 18,829.26 crore, as against Rs 11,682.12 crore a year ago.

SAIL’s net profit grew to Rs 3,443.80 crore on a standalone basis, from Rs 2,725.16 crore in the same period of 2019-20.

In January-March 2021, total income of the company rose to Rs 23,606.06 crore, from Rs 16,628.80 crore in the year-ago period.

Its expenses were at Rs 18,831.16 crore, as compared to Rs 11,675.87 crore in January-March 2020.

“The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and measures to curtail it had caused significant disturbances and slowdown of economic activities, as a result of which the company’s operations had to be scaled down during; the first quarter of financial year ended March 31, 2021,” the filing said.

The filing further noted that following the gradual normalization of economic activities, the company operates at normal capacity.

“Given the positive economic environment seen across sectors, the management believes that the trend is likely to continue in subsequent periods as well as the impact of COVID-19. If any, is not likely to be material,” it noted.

The Board of Directors has also declared a final dividend of 1.80 per equity share of Rs 10 each, SAIL said.

In a separate media statement, SAIL said it produced 4.56 million tonne (MT) during the quarter, up 6 per cent over the year-ago period, while sales jumped 11 per cent to 4.42 MT.

In the statement, SAIL Chairman Soma Mondal said, “the production performance and financial performance of SAIL improved hand-in-hand during the year. Moreover, the second half (of 2020-21 fiscal) saw buoyancy in steel demand on the back of recovering economic activities.”

Mondal further noted that “with the government also putting thrust on infrastructure spending, we focused on scaling up market-driven products along with improvement in operational efficiency, which helped the company deliver a noteworthy performance.”