Vedanta subsidiary Hindustan Zinc report decline of 2211 crore in December quarter

Vedanta Group firm Hindustan Zinc Monday posted 3.7 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 2,211 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2018. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,298 crore in the year-ago period. The total income of the company declined marginally by 1.8 per cent to Rs 6,090 crore, compared to Rs 6,203 crore in the corresponding quarter previous fiscal. "The all-round performance of our underground mines has been gratifying. As our ongoing projects are approaching completion, we are set to reach design capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum in the coming quarters. I am also delighted by the substantial increase in silver production which we expect to continue next year as well," company's Chairman Agnivesh Agarwal said.

Total mined metal output in the third quarter of the ongoing fiscal was up six percent sequentially and up three percent y-o-y (year-on-year) to 2,47,000 tonnes, driven by strong increase in underground ore production and improvement in ore grades. Integrated metal production was 2,42,000 tonnes in Q3, up 14 percent sequentially, with both zinc and lead production posting strong gains driven by higher mined metal availability.

The metal production was down one percent from a year-ago period. The integrated zinc output was 1,88,000 tonnes, up 16 percent sequentially on account of higher mine output and improved mined metal availability. Commenting on the outlook, the company said that with the ongoing ramp-up of underground mines, mined metal production in FY19 is likely to be slightly higher than last year in line with the annual guidance provided earlier. Refined zinc-lead production will be in sync with mined metal production and slightly short of last year's production.

"The guidance of FY 2019 silver production to be in the range of 650 to 700 MT is reiterated....The project CapEx for the year will be around USD 350 million," it said. The announced mining projects, it said, were progressing in line with the expectation of reaching 1.2 million tonnes per annum of mined metal capacity in FY20. Hindustan Zinc is a leading integrated producers of zinc-lead with a capacity of one million tonne per annum and a leading producer of silver.

(With inputs from agencies.)