Tata Steel Ltd, India?s largest and the world?s sixth largest steel producer, is expected to report a net loss on a consolidated basis despite profitable Indian operations. According to four broking firms, Tata Steel will register a consolidated net loss in the fourth quarter ending March 31, 2009, on account of correction in steel prices and sluggish demand leading to Corus announcing production cuts of 40%. Tata Steel will declare its results for the year ended March 2009 on June 25.

According to a report by Prabhudas Lilladher, Tata Steel will report a loss of about Rs 441 crore on consolidated basis in Q4 FY09 against a net profit of Rs 1,656 crore in Q4 FY08. Enam Securities in its recent report expects Corus’ profitability to remain under pressure on low steel prices, output cut and high fixed overheads. ?Going ahead, in FY 2010, we expect Corus’ Ebidta to decline to $15 per tonne from $84 per tonne in FY 2009,? said a report by Jagdishwar Toppo, a metal analyst with Enam. Meanwhile, Tata Steel (India) is expected to perform well on double-digit volume growth due to rising domestic demand and a recently expanded capacity (by 1.8 mtpa to 6.8 mtpa).

According to Motilal Oswal, on a stand-alone basis Tata Steel is expected to report a profit of about Rs 828 crore in Q4 FY09 against Rs 1,205 crore in Q4 FY08. Net sales during the quarter is expected to grow to Rs 6,309 crore against Rs 5,737 crore in Q4 FY08. Per the broking firm, ?Corus remains a concern due to drastic demand destruction in Europe, which may force Tata Steel to infuse more funds to keep it afloat despite unprecedented cost cutting measure undertaken.?

Meanwhile, Tata Steel had beaten all estimates of posting a steep loss for its quarter ending December 2009. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 732.21 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008. Experts are watching whether the company would surprise the market again and beat the expectations in Q4 FY 2009.

Tata Steel Ltd shares on Monday slipped 2.23% to close at Rs 402.55 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.