Nalco offers discounts, avoids production cut

The National Aluminium Company (Nalco), India’s second largest producer of the base metal, avoided a production cut by offering discounts to its key clients that helped it boost sales and trim rising inventory. The company, which maintains an average monthly inventory level of 5,000 tonnes, had stocks of 20,000 tonnes at the beginning of last month as demand for the metal dropped following the global economic slowdown. “Discounts varied from client to client based on our relationship with them and the memorandum of understanding we have,” said B L Bagra, director-finance, at the government-owned base metal producer. Bangalore-based Jindal Aluminium is one downstream company that buys the metal from government-owned metal producer.