GPH Ispat, one of the top steel manufacturers in Bangladesh, has made a turnaround in sales and profits in the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal year.

The Chattogram-based company's sales rose 66.77 per cent year-on-year to Tk 439 crore in the July-September period.

Profits jumped 67.5 per cent to Tk 27.47 crore at the same time, according to its quarterly report.

"Sales have grown mainly due to an increased share of the domestic market, where we provide higher quality products for the same price as others," said Kamrul Islam, executive director for finance and business development at GPH Group.

"Our plan for the last two years was to sell more of the products from the new plant. Now, we are getting the result," he added.

The company's annual billet production capacity rose from 2.1 lakh tonnes in 2018 to more than 10 lakh tonnes this year.

Rod production capacity grew from 1.5 lakh tonnes to 7.60 lakh tonnes over the same period thanks to the new facility.

"As our new plant's production has started, our plan has been working. So, you will see higher sales in the coming years," Islam said.

Product deliveries disrupted in the fourth quarter (April-June) of the last fiscal year when a nationwide lockdown was declared by the government in a bid to stop the spread of the Covid-19.

The deliveries were executed in the first quarter of the current fiscal, boosting sales, the executive director said.

GPH Ispat also produces low and medium carbon and alloy billets, which are raw materials of steel.

Last month, the company exported 25,000 tonnes of mild-steel (MS) billet worth $10.17 million to China.

The listed steel-maker is a well-performing stock and it is good news for investors that the company's profits rose amid the pandemic, according to Rahman Kayser, a stock investor.

"But it should announce more dividends," he said, adding that GPH Ispat has disbursed around 10 to 15 per cent dividends for the last few years.

The company's turnaround in fortune is a welcoming development for the sector, which was hit hard by the pandemic in the April-June quarter.

Profits fell by almost Tk 3,000 crore during that period, according to industry insiders.

The profits of Bangladesh Steel Re-Rolling Mills (BSRM) dropped 57 per cent year-on-year in 2019-20, while GPH Ispat had witnessed a 64.7 per cent fall.

RSRM's profit plunged 81 per cent, according to data from the Dhaka Stock Exchange. SS Steel, another listed steel-maker, is yet to publish its yearly financial reports.

In regards to the demand for steel in the first quarter for the current fiscal, Islam said that demand has not returned to pre-pandemic levels.

"GPH wants to acquire a higher market share by providing high-quality products at equal prices," the official said.

"So, GPH is acquiring market share while others are losing," he added.

Set up in 2006, GPH began commercial production in August 2008. It is currently the third-largest manufacturer of billet after AKS and BSRM in Bangladesh.

After the news of the company's first-quarter earnings broke, GPH Ispat's stocks rose 3.28 per cent to Tk 28.30 at the DSE.

GPH Ispat's paid-up capital was Tk 378 crore and it declared 10 per cent dividends for the year that ended on June 30, 2020.