| The net profit for the quarter ended March 31, 2004 declined by 78.8 per cent to Rs 15.67 lakh as compared to Rs 74.21 lakh in the corresponding quarter of 2002-03. |
| The company's operating profit, however, shot up by 528 per cent to Rs 94.9 lakh for the fourth quarter from Rs 15.11 lakh in the corresponding quarter of 2002-03. |
| For the whole year 2003-04, the operating profit rose by 106 per cent to touch Rs 2.27 crore as against Rs 1.1 crore in the year before. A deferred tax asset liability of Rs 62.23 lakh, however, squeezed the margins for the company. |
| Alufluoride produces aluminium fluoride and related products and supplies them both to domestic aluminium smelters and those in the Middle East. Two by-products, Silica and Calcium Fluoride, are supplied to the chemical industry. |
| V S Prasad, managing director of the company, told Business Standard that the company was slated to record better financials in the wake of good forecasts for the coming months. |
| Due to the new technologies deployed by the company, its products are Rs 6,000 cheaper per tonne, he said. The current price for a tonne of aluminium fluoride is Rs 33,700 in the domestic market and $715 abroad. |
| The company, which has an installed capacity of 5,000 tonne a year, produced 3,846 tonnes in 2003-04 and 3,170 tonnes in the previous year. |
| Prasad said that the company would go in for additional capacity expansion of 1,000 tonnes if it got assurance of sufficient supplies of flurosilicic acid from a fertiliser complex nearby. |
| The technology of mixing hydrofluosilicic acid with aluminium hydroxide does not require any materials to be procured from abroad and thus is cost effective. |
| "The use of this technology helps in conserving critical natural raw material resources like fluorspar and sulphur used to produce aluminium fluoride with alternate process technology," he said. |
Explore Business Standard