Better coal supplies, lower input costs to make Nalco profitable again

Nalco's net loss (after taxes) stood at Rs 33.96 crore in Q3 of FY20

Improvement in coal supplies, sobering costs of critical inputs like caustic soda, coal tar pitch and calcined petroleum coke and an anticipated strengthening in alumina prices would help National Aluminium Company (Nalco) stage a rebound in profits, analysts said.

For the quarter ended December 31 2019, Nalco posted its second straight quarterly loss.

“The company had to battle business headwinds in the form of softening international alumina prices and acute coal crunch in the domestic market. This led to spike in costs of metal production that reflected in the company’s earnings, pushing Nalco to rare back-to-back quarterly losses”, said a