State-run Hindustan Copper today reported 69% jump in net profit to Rs 80.72 crore for the December quarter on high prices of the metal amid global demand-supply mismatch.
The company had reported a net profit of Rs 47.81 crore for the same period last year.
"The net profit is up because the price of the metal was higher by an average of 30% at the London Metal Exchange during the quarter," HCL Chairman and Managing Director Shakeel Ahmed told PTI over phone.
The price of copper at LME rose to $8,637 a tonne by December-end from $6,648 per tonne at the beginning of the quarter in October. It is currently hovering at around $9,940 per tonne.
Indicating that the bottomline of the company would be better in the last quarter of the current fiscal as well, the HCL chief said the price of the metal was unlikely to go down to below $9,300 a tonne in the near-term.
"It should hover around $10,000 per tonne," Ahmed said adding that there was a shortfall of 5-6 lakh tonnes of copper in the world now against total production of 180 lakh tonnes in a year.
Ahmed said that HCL was also bullish to cash in on the current situation by increasing its production to around 8,500 tonnes during the fourth quarter of the current fiscal from 7,512 tonnes in the third.
Net sales of the Kolkata-based firm in October-December period of the current fiscal dipped to Rs 307.17 crore from Rs 322.97 crore in the same quarter last fiscal.
