Nalco melts as coal shortage impacts operation

National Aluminium Company dropped 3.96% to Rs 40 after the company said that acute coal shortage has affected its smelter plant operation.

National Aluminium Company (Nalco) said that short supply of coal has severely impacted aluminium production of the company and also the cost of power, as the power purchased from the grid is costly as compared to the power produced by it at its captive power plant (CPP). The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 16 October 2019.

Nalco fully depends upon Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) for supply of coal to its CPP at Angul and Steam & Power Plant at Damanjodi. However, of late there has been a shortfall of around 7,000 - 8,000 tonnes per day at Angul as against a requirement of around 17000 tonnes per day. Due to this short supply, which is running since the last seven weeks, the buffer stock of coal available with Nalco's CPP has been exhausted.

Since the supply of coal has not improved, Nalco has been drawing around 190 megawatts (MW) of power from the State Grid. The company may be forced to further shut down up to 227 numbers of electrolytic pots in phases, depending upon the power generation in CPP, matching with coal receipt.

Presently three units of CPP, each of 120 MW capacity are under shutdown and further one more unit will be taken under shutdown due to coal shortage.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 78 points or 0.20% to 38677.13.

On the BSE, 95,884 shares were traded in the counter so far compared with average daily volumes of 6.21 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock hit a high of Rs 40.45 and a low of Rs 39.75 so far during the day.

The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 72 on 05 November 2018. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 36.9 on 23 August 2019.

National Aluminium Company has diversified operations in mining, metal and power. The Government of India holds 52% stake in Nalco as on 30 June 2019.

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