Nalco's aluminium sales up 6% in Apr-Sept

National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has posted 5.8 per cent growth in aluminium sales in the April-September period, overcoming sluggish market conditions. The state-run aluminium company sold 181,000 tonne of aluminium in this period against a production figure of 188,000 tonne.

Alumina hydrate sales by Nalco was also up 8.5 per cent in this period at 581,000 tonne out of a total production figure of 968,000 tonne.

In terms of production, Nalco's performance was stellar, especially bauxite mining, which was up 23.6 per cent at 3.5 mt. Aluminium output by the navratna company was 4.2 per cent higher than the corresponding period of last fiscal. In the period under review, Nalco's net power generation went up 3.6 per cent to reach 2945 million units. Nalco also generated 130 million units of wind power, marking a growth of 14.7 per cent over the comparable period of 2015-16.

 

For 2016-17, Nalco has set a Capex (capital expenditure) target of Rs 1021 crore. The amount is intended to be used for projects like development of Utkal D & E coal blocks, wind power projects of 50 Mw each in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, addition of fifth stream in the existing alumina refinery at Damanjodi, aluminium park at Angul in Odisha, a 20 Mw solar power project in Madhya Pradesh and other expansion and modernization activities.

Union minister for coal, power and mines Piyush Goyal has recently asked Nalco to prepare a prospective future plan to raise aluminium smelting capacity to two mt from the present nameplate capacity of 0.46 mtpa.

Nalco had closed 2015-16 with a net profit of Rs 731 crore and also logged Rs 135 crore in the April-June quarter of this fiscal at a time when about 70 per cent of the aluminium companies the world over are incurring cash losses and resorting to capacity cuts.