NALCO slashes aluminium prices, stock surges

MUMBAI: The public sector aluminium major, National Aluminium Company Ltd, announced a heavy price cut in the aluminium prices considering the global financial slowdown. The company had declared a reduction of up to Rs.3000 per tonne on Aluminium. In an interview with the CNBC Awaaz News Channel, NALCO CMD, C.R. Pradhan had informed that the domestic market was not much affected due to the slowdown and in the international front, there was an impact but not a considerable one. The metal price continued to fall in the international spot market. It went down below USD 1300 per tonne from USD 1550. In the domestic market the metal prices hovered around Rs. 67.65 per kg in the spot market, while Aluminium Futures for March contract stood at Rs. 68.15 per kg. The Aluminium market resulted in a surplus because the demand was dropping rapidly from automobiles, consumer durables and real estate sector across the globe. The metal stocks kept on rising on the LME to a whopping highest for the month of January 2009 at 2,810,825 tonnes. For the year 2009 till date, LME inventories have grown by a net 500,050 tonnes to 2.8 million tonnes. With production costs coming down and domestic auto sales figures improve during February, producers could get a chance to survive, however, the aluminium shares on the BSE traded in green in the afternoon trading sessions. NALCO was trading at Rs.202.60 up by 2%, while Hindalco Industries Ltd was trading in green up by more than 3% at Rs.38.60 today.