Nalco turnover surpass Rs 3000 crore

The National Aluminium Company (Nalco), India's largest producer and exporter of alumina and aluminium, expects to notch up a net profit of Rs 750 crore in 2003-04, nearly 44 per cent higher than Rs 521 crore posted in the previous year.

The company's turnover has also crossed Rs 3000 crore mark for the first time basing on its best ever performance in all fronts of operation. Pending finalisation of accounts, the company expects to post a sales turnover of Rs 3200 crore in 2003-04, compared to Rs 2789 crore in the previous year.

Nalco has closed the financial year 2003-04 with highest ever aluminium production of 298,000 tonnes, registering an increase of 22 per cent over the previous year.

According to SK Banerjee, director (P&T) and CMD in-charge, the company's bauxite mines has cross the rated capacity to achieve an all-time record production of 48.15 lakh tonnes against previous year's 47.77 lakh tonnes.

Similarly, alumina production of 15.56 lakh tonnes (against 14.80 tonnes in the previous year) is also a new record since inception. The company also achieved record power generation of 5121 million units compared to 4291.6 million units in the previous year.

Banerjee said, the sales target in respect of the aluminium export, domestic metal sale and total metal sale are highest since inception and have surpassed the annual target.

On export front, the company shipped 131,000 tonnes of aluminium, which is a new high. The total metal sale increased by 20 per cent to 293,000 tonnes, which again is an all-time record.

The company exported 945,000 tonnes of alumina, earning highest ever total export income of Rs 1660 crore as against Rs 1516 crore last year. In this respect, the growth in company's export earning appeared marginal compared to the growth in domestic sale.