31st Jan 2014 12:45
LONDON (Alliance News) - Vedanta Resources PLC Friday said its revenues fell 3% in its fiscal third quarter following lower production from its zinc unit after unplanned shutdown.
The major mining and oil company said revenue in the quarter ending December 31 fell 3% to USD3.45 billion from USD3.58 billion a year earlier.
Vedanta was hit by a 14% fall in revenues from its Zinc operations to USD666.7 million during the quarter from USD771.5 million due mainly to an unplanned shutdown at its international zinc unit.
The Zinc International business, which accounts for about 5% of total revenue at the company, experienced a maintenance shutdown at its Skorpion mine in Namibia during November and December after a tank failure.
The company also noted a 15% fall in its total refined lead production to 27,000 tonnes and a 33% fall in its total saleable silver production during the quarter to 2.3 million ounces from 3.5 million ounces in its third quarter the previous year.
However, the company reported 15% higher production of refined zinc at its Zinc India unit during the quarter, record oil and gas production and a 3% rise in operating profits for its third quarter.
The oil and metals company said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation were USD294.2 million in the three months to end-December, compared with USD276.3 million a year earlier.
Its mined metal production was down 5% in the third quarter, although it was still up 11% in the first nine months of the financial year, thanks to higher output at the company's Rampura, Agucha and Zawar mines. It expects mined metal production in the full year to be about 900,000 tonnes due to a slower-than-expected ramp up of its underground mining project and a change in mining sequence that's giving preference to primary mine development.
However, Ebitda rose thanks to the overall higher sales volume, which was partly offset by lower silver prices and higher costs of production. It said its costs of production for zinc and silver rose to USD814 a tonne in the third quarter, up from USD814 million a year earlier.
Its oil and gas output rose 10% year-on-year thanks to a ramp-up in production at Rajasthan.
The company also noted that it restarted mining iron ore in Karnataka in December following clearance from a court-appointed panel and it expects to sell iron ore from Karnataka via auctions shortly.
Vedanta shares were down 4.6% to 799.31 pence, putting it in the top three FTSE250 fallers Friday.
By Tom McIvor; [email protected]; @TomMcIvor1
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