No single player controls prices: Tata Steel on CCI probe report

From earnings outlook and steel prices, to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) probe report on steel price collusion, Tata Steel Managing Director and CEO T V Narendran and Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer Koushik Chatterjee discuss a range of issues following the firm's third quarter performance in a video interview with Ishita Ayan Dutt. Edited excerpts:

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Tata Steel’s net profit zoomed 723 percent year-on-year (Yo-Y) but was down sequentially. What is the outlook for Q4?

Narendran: Domestic steel prices in October-November were the lowest in the past five years. It started changing in December. The impact of that was felt in the realisations.

The Yo-Y performance was driven by better volumes, cost takeouts, and the continued turnaround in the Netherlands. The UK improved on a nine-month comparison, but not Q3 (Yo-Y) — so there is work to be done there.

In India, volumes are picking up with the ramp-up in Kalinganagar and the product-mix is getting better with the commissioning of the cold rolling mill and galvanising lines. The combi mill in Jamshedpur has started.

So we continue to build volumes in the very high-end sectors.

Steel prices have rebound from multiyear lows. Is the uptrend likely to hold?

Narendran: Till November, domestic steel prices were at a discount to landed import. This is reflective of the fact that while demand was growing, more supply came into the market.