Sandeep Modi CFO, Hindustan Zinc Limited

"We are ideally placed to harness the strong demand and emerging growth opportunities"

 

In Q1FY24, the company’s net sales decreased by 23.01 per cent year-on-year (YoY) but the net profit dropped by 36.48 per cent YoY. What were the variables that led to the company’s underperformance? 

Across global zinc companies, profits have dropped substantially on account of plummeting zinc prices. Year-on-year the prices have fallen by 19 per cent while the cost has not reduced at the same pace. However, as a leader in the global cost curve and being in the first quartile, we continue to focus on optimising costs and improving operational efficiencies. By virtue of our structured cost reduction programme, we have been able to reduce cost by USD 100, which is approximately 10 per cent reduction, per tonne in the last two quarters and we expect to optimise our cost further, thereby improving the margins.

With the recent correction in zinc prices, do you think that the prices will stabilise at these levels or do you see some recovery in prices going ahead? What are the factors that could influence the zinc prices in the near future?