(Bloomberg) -- Tata Steel Ltd., one of India’s leading producers of the alloy, reported fourth-quarter profit that slumped 64% from a year earlier, dragged down by lower prices and a one-time loss. 

Group net income for the three months through March declined to 6.11 billion rupees ($73.4 million), the company said in a statement Wednesday. Profit was hurt by lower realizations across geographies and missed the average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.  

A surge in imports of the alloy has weighed on prices, driving down earnings of leading steelmakers, including Tata Steel and JSW Steel Ltd. Finished steel shipments from overseas to India rose 38% in the year through March, with shipments from China leaping 91% from the prior year, according to the industry lobby group Indian Steel Association.

“China’s steel supply continued to outpace demand leading to elevated exports,” Tata Steel said, adding subdued demand in the world’s biggest producer and consumer of the material “remains an overhang.”

The company’s deliveries in India rose 5% during the quarter, while shipments in Europe slid almost 7% from a year earlier, it said last month. Crude steel output in India rose 4.5%. Group revenue declined nearly 7% over the year, while total expenses fell almost 6%, according to the statement. Losses at the European operations before exceptional items, interest, tax and depreciation reduced by 60%.

The company reported a one-time charge of 5.94 billion rupees, mostly on account of provisions for impairment and costs related to surrendering a chromite mining block in India.

The company is investing £1.25 billion ($1.6 billion) to build a new electric arc furnace at its Port Talbot works in the UK, while deciding to close down two blast furnaces at the plant by September. The decision, reached after months of negotiations with trade unions, has triggered plans for an industrial action. 

The company approved a plan to invest as much as $2.1 billion equity in T Steel Holdings Pte, a Singapore-based unit through which Tata Steel channelizes investments into overseas businesses, it said in a separate statement. The equity funding will be made during the current fiscal year and will be used to repay debt at offshore entities and support restructuring work at the company’s UK operations, the company said.  

(Updates throughout with more details.)

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