Vedanta Group firm Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) on Tuesday reported a 23 per cent decline in net profit at ₹1,359 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2020.

The company had posted a net profit of ₹1,765 crore in April-June quarter of last fiscal, Hindustan Zinc said in a filing to the BSE.

Total income dropped to ₹4,673 crore during the quarter as against ₹5,416 crore in the year-ago period.

Commenting on the performance, HZL CEO Sunil Duggal said, “Our strong performance during these difficult times demonstrates the spirit and resilience of our people, who transformed a crisis into an opportunity.

“The resulting streamlining of our operations has also laid a strong foundation, which will have a lasting positive impact on the performance.”

HZL’s Deputy CEO Arun Misra said the company successfully restarted its operations post lifting of Covid-19 lockdown in April, and ramped up operations across all mines and smelters to near normal levels.

“In these uncertain times, our priority continues to be safety of our people and continuity of our operations in order to deliver robust growth in the quarters to come,” he said.

The company’s CFO Swayam Saurabh said, “Our cost optimisation programme launched last year has started to yield results. With digitalisation and automation projects taking roots in our day-to-day operations, we expect to deliver higher volume at lower costs this year.”

The company’s mined metal production for the quarter was down 5 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) and 19 per cent sequentially to 2,02,000 tonnes due to fewer days of production in April and lower workforce availability on account of restrictions related to COVID-19.

Integrated metal production stood at 2,02,000 tonnes during June quarter, down 8 per cent Y-o-Y and 9 per cent sequentially due to lower production in April.

The company said production of mined metal as well as finished metal will be higher in fiscal year 2020-21 than previous year, and is expected to be between 9,25,000-9,50,000 tonnes each.

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