Tata Steel sees big profit fall

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Tata Steel has seen profits at its Indian operations slump 56% after it was hit by both the falling price of steel and higher raw material costs.

India's biggest steel producer said its domestic net profit declined to 4.7bn rupees ($95m; Â£66m) for the last three months of 2008.

This compares with 10.7bn rupees for the same quarter a year earlier.

Tata Steel owns Corus in Europe, but no Corus data was included in the update. Corus is now cutting 3,500 job cuts.

Global slowdown

Tata Steel's latest quarterly profit for its Indian operations was less than half market expectations of more than 11bn rupees.

Sales during the quarter were down 4% to 47.4bn rupees.

Like all steelmakers, Tata Steel has been hit by the drop in global steel prices as the worldwide economic downturn as gathered pace.

The firm bought Corus back in 2007 and is part of the wider Tata Group, whose other business interests include carmaking and tea production.

Tata Steel said figures for Corus' final quarter of 2008 would be released next month.