India’s Tata Steel, the world’s seventh-largest steelmaker, said Monday quarterly net profit slumped a worse-than-expected 89 percent from a year earlier due to falling demand in its key European market. Steelmakers around the world have been suffering from a slowdown in demand as industrial growth loses pace in emerging economies such as India and China and expansion remains sluggish in advanced western economies. Tata Steel reported a consolidated net profit of 5.97 billion rupees ($108 million) for the financial first-quarter to the end of June, down from 53.47 billion rupees a year earlier. Turnover edged up two percent to 335 billion rupees. Analysts had expected the firm to post a profit of close to seven billion rupees. Europe accounts for around two-thirds of sales and production for the steelmaker, which has an annual capacity of some 28 million tonnes. Tata Steel, part of the sprawling Tata Group conglomerate, became one of the world’s biggest steelmakers after purchasing Anglo-Dutch company Corus for $13.7 billion in 2007.
