Nalco to invest INR 5,540 crore in 1 million tonne alumina refinery

The board of National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has approved a significant capacity expansion plan to set up a one million tonne alumina refinery at Damanjodi, Koraput, Odisha at a proposed investment of INR 5,540 crore. Nalco already has a captive bauxite deposit at Pottangi in the state, which will be utilized in this project. This is the first major expansion in the state run aluminium company in step with the Modi government's Make in India campaign.

The aluminium major reported a more than two fold rise in net profit to INR 354.87 crore in Q4 FY15, due to an exceptional gain. Against this the company had posted a net profit of INR 172.45 crore in the previous corresponding period. Total income, however, declined by 2% to INR 1,801.25 crore in January-March quarter of 2014-15 from INR 1,838.20 crore in the same period of 2013-14.

For fiscal FY15, Nalco's net profit went up to INR 1,322 crore in FY15 against INR 642 crore in same period of FY14. During the year, the company achieved its highest ever gross turnover of INR 7,771 crore, a 10.6% rise against INR 7,024 crore achieved in 2013-14.

Nalco produced 3.27 lakh tonne (lt) of cast metal in FY15 against 3.16 lt produced the previous year. Alumina hydrate production was a shade lower in FY15 at 18.51 lt against 19.25 lt in the previous year. While Nalco's captive power plant achieved net power generation of 5,131 million unit against 4,989 million unit achieved in last fiscal, Nalco also generated 175 MU of wind energy during the year by operating a 50.4 MW wind power plant at Gandikota, Andhra Pradesh and another 47.6 MW plant at Jaisalmer, Rajasthan.