S. K. Roongta NEW DELHI: The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) on Monday announced that it had posted Rs. 1,835 crore net profit for the quarter ended June 30, a growth of 20.3 per cent over same period last fiscal riding on a 10-per cent growth in domestic sales including that of quality steels. It had a net profit of Rs. 1,525.12 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2008. The company's total income rose by 36.85 per cent to Rs. 11,421.99 crore in the latest quarter from Rs. 8,346.40 crore in the year-ago period. In a statement here, the company said it showed improvement in the financial performance despite a burden of Rs. 1,434-crore on account of substantially higher cost of inputs like coal, freight, ferroy-alloys and fuel and maintaining a constant price line during the May-June period. "The strategy of thrust on production of value-added and special quality steels, higher production with still better capacity utilisation and continual improvement in operational efficiencies has helped the company offset cost pressures and improve profitability, despite of holding the price-line,' SAIL Chairman S. K. Roongta said in the statement. Mr. Roongta said it was mainly due to 10 per cent growth in domestic sales at 2.62 million tonnes, including the highest-ever quarter one sales of special quality steels. This had helped the company register a sales turnover of Rs. 12,183 crore with 37 per cent growth during the period. Primary steel producers, including SAIL, had on May 7 cut prices by Rs. 4,000 a tonne on flat products and promised the Government to hold the price-line for the next three months to check inflation, which has now galloped close to 12 per cent.