National Aluminium's net profit up 9.4 percent

Thursday, 04 December 2008, 20:30 IST
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Angul (Orissa): The global economic slowdown may have pushed many companies into crisis world over, but for National Aluminium Co. (Nalco), India's second largest aluminium producer, it is business as usual. The company's net profit soared 9.4 percent to 9.69 billion in the first six months this fiscal, compared to 8.86 billion a year earlier, Nalco Smelter and Power Complex executive director Angul Arun Sharma said Thursday. The sales turnover for the period stood at 32.82 billion, 20.7 percent up from 27.19 billion in the corresponding period last year. The company's alumina sales during the April-September period went up to 443,479 tonnes from 424,615 tonnes a year ago, while metal sales slightly dropped to 172,688 tonnes from 172,903 tonnes. The fall in sales, according to Sharma, was mainly because of failures in the coal supply. Nalco has a coal linkage with Mahanadi Coalfields of Coal India. But the state-run coal producer failed to meet its supply commitment twice this year due to internal problems. Following short supply, Nalco had to import coal at exorbitant prices from other companies, Sharma said. He, however, added that coal supply from Mahanadi has improved to an average of 13,205 tonnes per day. Last fiscal, Nalco achieved 104.48 percent capacity utilisation of its smelter at Angul, Orissa with a production of 360,457 tonnes of aluminium cast metal against 358,734 tonnes in the previous year. Similarly, the alumina refinery at Damanjodi in the state reported 100.04 percent capacity utilisation with a production of 1.57 million tonnes of alumina hydrate against 1.47 million tonnes in the previous year.
Source: IANS