17 May
BHUBANESWAR,

National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), the Navratna PSU and India’s largest integrated manufacturer and exporter of alumina and aluminium, reported on 15 May results for the 4th quarter ended March 2010.

According to the unaudited financial results for the 4th quarter taken on record in the Board of Directors meeting held in New Delhi yesterday, the company has achieved a net profit of Rs.391.48 crore ($86 mln) recording an increase of 371%, over Rs.83.02 crore earned in the same quarter of the previous year.

The improved profit in the 4th quarter is due to enhanced volume of production & sale, improved consumption norms of input materials and increasing trend in LME Aluminium price during the quarter, which in turn helped the company achieve better sales realization in alumina and metal.

Average sales realization of aluminium for the year 2009–10 was USD 1946 per tonne as against USD 2234 per tonne in the previous year, resulting in a lower price realization of about USD 288 per tonne. The negative impact on profits, due to adverse price variation, is Rs. 772 crore for the year 2009-10. The net profit and turnover for the financial year 2009–10 works out to Rs.832.60 crore and Rs.5310.46 crore respectively, as against the corresponding figures of Rs.1272.22 crore and Rs.5531.06 crore achieved during the previous year.

During the year 2009-10, Nalco has achieved an all-time high in production of alumina and aluminium. The company achieved the highest-ever metal production of 4.31 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, against the previous best of 3.61 lakh tonnes in 2008-09, with an increase of 14.4%.

Similarly, the company achieved record production of 15.92 lakh tonnes of alumina hydrate, with capacity utilization of 101.05%, against the previous year level of 15.77 lakh tonnes.

Power generation has also increased to 6295 MU from 5541 MU achieved in 2008-09.

The company has registered an impressive growth in profits in the second half of the year as compared to the profits earned in the first half of the year. Profit in H2 has been Rs. 547 crore, a rise of 91% over the H1 profit of Rs. 286 crore. The company is vigorously pursuing up its expansion programme and has projects worth Rs. 50,000 crore lined up as part of its greenfield and brownfield expansion plans.