Graphite India shares hit fresh record high after stellar earnings performance in Q1

Graphite India share price rallied 3.6 percent intraday to hit a fresh record high of Rs 1,093 on Monday as the company started off the fiscal year on a strong note.

Consolidated profit during the quarter shot up nearly 32-fold to Rs 957 crore compared to Rs 30 crore in same period last year.

The carbon and graphite product manufacturing company has reported a 5-fold increase in revenue to Rs 1,965 crore for the quarter ended June 2018 YoY, backed by healthy capacity utilization of 88 percent and driven by higher price realisations.

K K Bangur, chairman said the strong sector momentum continued in the new fiscal year with steel production registering a robust growth of 5.6 percent in Q1FY19. "Chinese steel production increased by 7.3 percent during the quarter. New electric arc furnaces (EAF) are becoming operational as they replace certain archaic blast furnace capacities in order to curb environmental pollution. With these dynamics, there is increased demand for graphite electrodes within China."

Chinese net steel exports in first half of CY2018 were down by 15.5 percent YoY to 28.7 million tonne leading to increased steel production and capacity utilisations in all other major EAF steel producing nations. "Favourable consolidation of these metrics continues to prime the price and demand profile of graphite electrodes to greater heights, hitherto unseen," he said.

EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) in Q1 surged nearly 38-fold to Rs 1,436 crore and margin expanded sharply to 73.1 percent from 9.7 percent YoY.