New Delhi, July 28: Steel Authority of India (SAIL) today announced a flat first- quarter net profit at Rs 1,123 crore compared with Rs 1,112 crore in the year-ago period.

Turnover inched up 11 per cent to Rs 6,265 crore, a company release said. The marginal rise in the earnings was attributed to higher taxes of Rs 578 crore against Rs 94 crore in the first three months of last financial year.

“We were under the ambit of minimum alternative tax (MAT). Then, we had past losses and unaccounted depreciation,” it said. However, profit before tax grew at a faster rate ? by around 41 per cent ? to Rs 1,701 crore.

SAIL’s debt-equity ratio was 0.53 at the end of June against 0.58 in March this year. Holding on to the position of being an almost debt-free company, the steel PSU reduced its interest charges in the first quarter by Rs 57 crore. That showed a decline of around 30 per cent.

“SAIL can withstand the downturn so typical of the cyclical steel industry. The company will cash in on the future growth potential, particularly in infrastructure development,” the release, quoting chairman V. S. Jain, said.

Production of saleable steel grew 19 per cent to 2.76 million tonnes; the rise was 22 per cent at 3.3 million tonnes for hot metal. The output of finished steel went up 13 per cent 2.2 million tonnes. The company produced 22 per cent more special steel at its three speciality plants.

The overall steel production, through the energy-efficient continuous cast route, increased four lakh tonnes. This represented a growth of 11 per cent in April-June 2005 over the corresponding period last year.

The thrust on value-added products helped SAIL increase production of GP/GC sheets by 22 per cent, plates by 17 per cent, HR coils/sheets by 14 per cent, CR coils/sheets by 14 per cent and railway products by 9 per cent.

The company’s integrated steel plants achieved a reduction of 1.5 per cent in the use of coke. They needed only 530 kg of coke for every tonne of hot metal in the last quarter.