Nalco sets higher bauxite, alumina output targets for FY17

Firm was so far regulating output due to slowdown, but is now braving it out by boosting production to beat margin erosion

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Unfazed by the downturn in the global aluminium industry, National Aluminium Company (Nalco) is eyeing higher production of bauxite and alumina in this fiscal to beat margin erosion.

“With concerted efforts, in 2016-17, we shall achieve the target of producing 6.82 million tonne of bauxite, an increase of 7.1 per cent and 2.15 million tonne of alumina, an increase of 9.2 per cent as compared to last fiscal,” Nalco’s chairman and managing director (CMD) T K Chand said in his address to the company’s employees at Damanjodi, the site of its alumina refinery.

Describing 2015-16 as the seminal year, Chand said that there would be a major turnaround in the business plan of the company to meet the turbulent business environment. Hitherto, Nalco was regulating its production to tide over the crisis, but now, the company is braving it out by augmenting production to beat margin erosion, he added.

Nalco registered 10.47 per cent growth in its bauxite production at 6.3 million tonne (mt) in 2015-16.
 
Nalco’s alumina production was higher by 5.51 per cent at 1.95 mt. The navratna PSU also produced 0.37 mt of aluminium metal, posting an increase of 13.79 per cent, including the highest-ever production of 0.1 mt of wire rods.
 
The navratna PSU handled the market downturn by focusing on its bauxite mining and alumina refining arm besides effecting several cost reduction measures, particularly in metal production.
 
Nalco has managed to post the highest ever production figures at a time when 70 per cent of the global aluminium companies have reported cash losses and the aluminium industry is battling huge stress due to tepid prices.