The company's board has recommended a final dividend of Re 1 per share (on face value of Rs 10) for the year. The total dividend, after taking into account the interim dividend of Rs 3 per share, amounts to Rs 4 per share for the year as against Rs 3 per share in 1998-99.

JSL's turnover increased by 23 per cent to Rs 1418 crore for the year ended March 31, 2000 as against Rs 1153 crore in the previous year. For the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2000, the turnover stood at Rs 417.62 crore and net profit at Rs 19.67 crore as against Rs 301.36 crore and Rs 12.87 crore respectively.

The overall growth in sales turnover does not fully reflect the volume growth in real terms as the stainless steel prices had started increasing from the second/third quarter of fiscal year 1999-2000, says a company statement. The company is increasing its stake in the US-based subsidiary Massillon Steel Inc from 51 per cent to 65 per cent as reported in The Financial Express last week. The statement adds that the production of molten stainless steel has increased by over 14 per cent from 222,791mt in 1998-99 to 254,509mt in 1999-2000. Production of CR coils has also gone up from 10,282mt to 21,840mt in the current year. As a result of effective working capital management and refinancing the company's high cost debt with low cost debt, the average cost of funds has come down from 15.75 per cent in the previous year to 14.5 per cent for the year ended March 2000.

The company is confident of achieving exports to around $100 million in the next fiscal. Its exports increased to $29 million during the year as against $5 million in the previous year. Cost control measures and improvement in efficiencies have also helped in achieving cash profit of Rs 126.83 crore as compared to Rs 88.41 crore in the previous year.

The operating margins have increased from 16.62 per cent to 15.30 per cent in the previous year. The production of CR coils has increased from 10,282mt in the previous year to 21,840mt in the year 1999-2000. This has helped the company to increase exports of cold rolled products. Phase-11 of the project will be completed by December 2000 which would increase the cold rolled capacity from 30,000 to 90,000mt.