Hindalco to invest INR 1,000 cr to increase value added aluminium products

<p>Hindalco Industries, an aluminium manufacturing company and subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group, have decided to invest INR 1,000 crore in order to expand their downstream business in next term. The company took the decision to boost overall sales of aluminium and copper value added products.</p> <p><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/product_c_23.jpg" alt="news" width="517" height="226" /></p> <p>Hindalco MD Satish Pai explained that the company plans to invest INR 3,000-4,000 crore in downstream expansion over the next five years. Also, the company targets an extra EBIDTA of $150-$200 a tonne.</p> <p>Next year, Hindalco is going to add 50,000 tonnes of aluminium value added products. The company&rsquo;s proportion of aluminium value added products such as flat rolled products, foils and extrusions is about 3.40 lakh tonnes.</p> <p>He said, &ldquo;We are committed to be capex disciplined and have tight control on cash flow. The company can speed up the downstream investments to boost profits if the process of deleveraging is executed faster.&rdquo;</p> <p>{googleAdsense}</p> <p>As of the December quarter, the company&rsquo;s consolidated debt stands at INR 67,248.</p> <p>Pai commented: &ldquo;We will repay a debt of ?1,400 crore by March. We are going to accelerate deleveraging and want to reach a debt-Ebitda level of 3 from the current 4.5. If the deleveraging process is accelerated I can concentrate on downstream expansions.&rdquo;</p> <p>He concluded that the company can deleverage faster and invest in less capital intensive downstream projects if aluminium and copper prices on LME stay higher.</p>