India: Lloyds Metals' iron ore sales jump y-o-y in Q4FY23

Lloyds Metals and Energy Limited recorded iron ore sales of 1.1 mnt in Q4FY23 (January-March, 2023), rising significantly as against 0.25 mnt seen in the same period last year. In this quarter, the company recorded higher realisation q-o-q at INR 6,163/t.

The miner produced 0.58 mnt of iron ore in Q4FY23, a sharp decrease of 61.8% compared to 1.52 mnt in the previous quarter.

The miner has received EC for a 10 mnt mine in March 2023, and with infrastructure in place, the company began mining for expanded capacities. The company started exports of iron ore in Q1FY24 for grades which do not attract export duties.

DRI production rises y-o-y

In Q4FY23, the company's direct reduced iron (DRI) production stood at 50,470 t, higher as against 34,750 t in Q4FY22.

However, Lloyds showed a significant improvement in operating performance of DRI production in FY23. Capacity utilisation was reported at 75% as against 45% in FY22.

Commenting on the company's performance, Rajesh Gupta, Director, said, "FY23 has been the first full year of our iron ore mining operations. Our FY23 performance begin on a sound note but was slowed down in Q2 on account of various domestic and global factors that led to some softening in ore prices as the market was re-balancing the demand/supply situation. However, post Q2FY23, iron ore prices have been stable and looking very encouraging. We have been witnessing a steady improvement in our realisations and margin, thus, recording peak realisations in Q4FY23."

He further said, "Our capacity utilisation for the DRI plant increased to 76% in FY23 as against sub-45% in FY22. We thus end FY23 on a sound footing with an overall improvement in all aspects, with a big kicker being the enhanced capacity of our iron ore mine to 10mnt per annum."