FY21: NALCO CMD forecasts Aluminium production to cross 4.1 lakh tonne

The National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), a Navratna CPSE under Ministry of Mines, Govt. of India has posted higher EBITDA in Q3FY21 driven by a strong performance by the aluminium business piloted by higher LME aluminium prices and favourable costs.

Sridhar Patra, CMD, NALCO explained: “COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the production during April’20 to August’20. The plant was operating at around 65% of capacity utilisation. Despite that, we are sure that we are achieving 95% of last year production and we are quite confident of achieving the same.”

However, regarding aluminium production, he said, “Last year we achieved 21.6 lakh tonne of alumina and 4.1 lakh tonne of aluminium production. We are making all the efforts to cross aluminium production of 4.1 lakh tonne in FY21.”

“As far as alumina is concerned, we are trying to meet our normal capacity but due to COVID, it has impacted. However, we are confident we will achieve more than 95% of previous year production,” he added.

On the subject of prices, Sridhar Patra stated: “Alumina prices range between 15% and 16.5-17% of the metal. Alumina constitutes almost one-third of the cost of metal. At present in Q4, we expect alumina prices to hover around $320-330 per tonne on an average. In Q4 aluminium prices are expected to hover around $2000-2200 per tonne.”