Hindustan Zinc hikes zinc, lead prices

MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Hindustan Zinc announced that it has raised prices of zinc and lead after the metals jumped on the London Metal Exchange. Zinc prices were raised by Rs 5,500 per tonne while lead prices were raised by Rs 5,900 per tonne. Meanwhile, National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), the Navratna PSU and India’s leading producer and exporter of alumina and aluminium, has the first pinch of global slowdown with its profit dipping to Rs 127 crore in the 1st quarter ended June 30 from Rs 525 crore during the same period in the last fiscal registering a negative growth of 76%. Due to low prices, the turnover for the quarter has also reduced considerably. This is in spite of the fact that the blue-chip company registered an impressive 20.46% increase in aluminium production to 104,776 tons from 86,979 tons in the. Alumina production has increased to 400,800 tons from 392,900 tons in corresponding quarter last year. Power generation also increased by 14.35% to 160 million units [MU] from 1400 MU. On the sales front, Nalco also achieved total sale of 93,104 MT of aluminium in the 1st quarter, which was 84,103 MT in the corresponding period of previous year. Despite prevailing sluggish market conditions, Nalco has been able to increase its export of aluminium to 27,995 tons from 12,623 tons in the corresponding quarter.