I was just assessing the numbers. Year-on-year, quarter-on-quarter, those numbers — production quarter-on-quarter grew 8.5% and year-on-year 8%. Deliveries grew 6.5% year-on-year, with a quarter-on-quarter jump of around 0.5%. So to discuss the numbers in detail, Tata Steel's MD T. Narendran sir will now appear on your screens. Narendran sir, hi, good afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us. Last time, when I spoke with Narendran sir during Q2 numbers on this same program, I had asked him about a major concern — whether this super cycle is playing out and at what stage of the cycle we are standing. Are we at the edge of it ending? Sir beautifully explained with data that the cycle has just begun. And since then, Tata Steel's stock has been trading at record highs. Even in today's trading session, it's trading near the 200 threshold at record highs. Narendran sir, I was reading the numbers. Quarter-on-quarter, revenues fell 3%. Deliveries saw a quarter-on-quarter jump of around 3-4%. Has there been a slowdown in demand momentum? And the reason for the revenue decline — is it that realizations have been weak for us?
So the revenue decline was mainly because of realizations. If you look at last year, in the October-December quarter, prices started going up in December. But before that, prices were at a five-year low. So it has been a difficult three years for the steel industry because for the past two to three years, China's exports have been more than 110 million tons. We saw this last in 2015-16. So the same thing has been going on for the past two to three years — more than 10 million tons a month of exports. So that impacted international prices. And in India, domestic demand was strong, which is why imports were not high. That's why Indian prices were still okay. But still, Indian prices were at a discount to domestic landed cost, which we call it. So which means that the supply was slightly on the excess side. That got balanced as demand picked up. And our exports also increased a bit. So that's why prices started going up. And the other thing happening now is that cooking coal prices, which account for almost 40% of our input cost, those prices have also gone up about $50 in the last six weeks.
Okay, the geographical data — Director sir, please put it on the screens, the graphics I had sent to you. Narendran sir, India and Netherlands are still delivering. The UK business was discussed last quarter and was in trouble. This quarter again, they are reporting losses. Is it the depressed UK market that is impacting the UK business, or is there more to it, sir? What is the reason for posting losses there again?
Now, I think that is a main reason. If you look at our UK operations, after the restructuring that we started two years ago, we have reduced the fixed cost by almost 400 million pounds in the last two years. So from a cost perspective, we have done all that we could do. And even if I look at our annual cost targets across geographies, the UK geography has done even better than Netherlands and India in taking out cost. So they have actually done a very good job of taking out cost. But market conditions are very bad there. In the UK, the quotas for imports are more than the domestic demand. And that has not been revised for many years. So that was our request to the government. Just like in Europe, they have reduced the quotas by 50%. In the UK also, they should take some action on quotas. And the second point is that just as Europe has some safeguard duties, India has also imposed safeguard duties, the UK should also do that. So we hope that in this quarter they will make some announcements that will help us, because internally, what we can do, we have already done. So we are waiting for some policy support from the government.
Sir, you are here, and every time there is a question in mind because before your interaction, I read the investor presentations that you put on the exchanges. Let me ask one thing today. Looking in hindsight, with the performance across all geographies, would it have been better if we had remained a domestic entity? The financial cost — that is obvious — the financial cost has been quite heavy for you. There could be strategic intent. That logic now seems right in hindsight, or it went wrong. If we had been a domestic entity, it would have been better, rather than bearing the pain of Europe.
No, no, that happens, but wisdom of hindsight is always easy, you know. So see, at that time when we started the journey of international acquisitions, Tata Steel was 4 million tons, it was sub-scale, it was the 55th largest steel company in the world. Now we are the 10th largest steel company in the world, right? So if you had to build scale, you had to take some chances. We took some chances. I think Netherlands has always been a good asset for us. In fact, in the past 15-20 years, we have not had to support Netherlands with any cash support. They have always made profit, apart from one or two years in between, they have given us dividends. So we have not had a problem in Netherlands. Southeast Asia has not been a problem for us. UK has been a problem because structurally there were some issues. So it happens — there are a lot of decisions which work out in our favor, some decisions may not.
Okay, yes, fine. That is the benefit of hindsight. You are right. But yes, looking at it today, it seems that if we were domestic, we would have done even better. Without carrying unnecessary baggage. Okay, last week's highlight was the trade deal with the US, and Narendran sir, this weekend the contours of that deal have come out.
Tariffs were reduced on most sectors — some to 18%, some to around 0%. But on steel, it's still 50% — earlier also 50% tariff was in place, and it's still 50%. How do you see this? How does the Indian steel industry see it? A missed opportunity or on expected lines?
So for steel from India, there wasn't much impact. We are more concerned about the US and EU because our exports from both Netherlands and UK were going to the US. I mean, from India there weren't many exports. So for us, the India-US trade deal is more of an indirect impact. One is that after the trade deal, sentiment has changed quite a bit. The second thing is that many of our customers export to Europe, like the auto component manufacturers, etc. So for them it's good. That means we will also have the benefit of that. But the direct impact is not much for the steel industry and Tata Steel.
