NALCO achieves highest ever turnover

Bhubaneswar, April 25 -- The state-run National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) Wednesday said that it had achieved its highest ever turnover of Rs.65.16 billion in 2006-07, recording an increase of 22.40 percent over the previous year's Rs.53.24 billion.

NALCO, which is the largest manufacturer and exporter of alumina and aluminium and the flagship public sector undertaking of the ministry of mines, said this in a press release after taking record of its un-audited financial results at the company's board meeting here.

The company has also reported a 52.39 percent jump in net profits - Rs.23.80 billion during the financial year 2006-07, based on un-audited results, from Rs.15.62 billion in 2005-06.

NALCO achieved the highest-ever metal sale of 3,56,616 tonnes in the financial year 2006-07. This represents an increase of 3.4 percent against the target of 345,000 tonnes. The previous best sale was 353,841 tonnes in 2005-06.

The company's Aluminium Smelter too achieved 104 percent capacity utilisation during the year. The margins have increased from 57 percent to 61 percent this financial year, the release said.

Similarly, the company's 960 MW Captive Power Plant at Angul near the Smelter Plant has achieved the highest-ever power generation of 5,968 million units, the previous best being 5,679 million units in 2005-06.

The generation is also higher than the memorandum of understanding (MoU) target of 5,714 million units. Besides, this two decades old coal-fired NALCO plant achieved the highest plant load factor (PLF) of 79.3 percent, surpassing the record of 78.85 percent PLF achieved in 1993-94, said the release

NALCO has been pursuing plans of continuous expansion of production capacity to strengthen its business and increase in market share. Soon after the completion of the 1st phase expansion, the company has now launched its 2nd phase expansion involving a fresh investment of Rs.51 billion.

According to the release, the present capacity of Bauxite Mines will go up from 4.8 million tonnes to 6.3 million tonnes, Alumina Refinery from 1.57 million tonnes to 2.1 million tonnes, Aluminium Smelter from 345,000 tonnes to 460,000 tonnes per year and Captive Power Plant from 960 MW to 1,200 MW.

As part of its business development strategy, the company is actively exploring the possibilities of setting up joint venture projects abroad for making aluminium based on its surplus alumina to the tune of 1.2 million tonnes - expected to be available once the 2nd phase expansion is complete.