Nalco gets $458.60/tonne for alumina from HK co

National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco) has got an f.o.b. price of $458.60 a tonne of alumina, in spite of the biddings getting a lukewarm response from buyers. For the 30,000-tonne lot, the company received the highest bid from Nobel Resources of Hong Kong. The payment is to be made in August. The second highest bidder quoted about $65 less than Nobel Resources. There were only three bidders for the lot this time. Six bidders contested in early July for the same quantity of alumina. Nalco got $457 a tonne from Standard Chartered Bank. Aluminium Bahrain quoted $455 a tonne. "Aluminium prices are going into the stabilising phase," said PK Parida, executive director (marketing), Nalco. Prices came down by about $92 on July 16 and are decreasing further. Prices were responding to the announced cutbacks by producers. Now, the real cutback has started affecting prices. Nalco, which has saleable alumina of about 9 lakh tonne, has already achieved sales of 222,883 tonne during the first quarter of this fiscal as compared with 207,796 tonne during the year-ago period. During the first quarter, it squared up three alumina sales--- at $ 403.09, $427.77 and $425 a tonne. Nalco exported about 8.59 lakh tonne of alumina in 2007-08. Source: THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS