Captive coal to cut Nalco's aluminium cost by 25%

Utkal D block to cut the cost of production by $500 per tonne

State-owned National Aluminium Company (Nalco), which made windfall gains from booming metal prices at LME, is looking to improve its profitability further after a captive coal block allotted to it starts operation shortly.

With energy cost accounting for 40 per cent of the aluminium production cost, use of coal from captive mine is estimated to cut costs by a whopping 25 per cent with savings of $500 around Rs 35,000) per tonne of aluminium churned out at Nalco’s 0.46 million tonne smelter at Angul. Nalco was allotted two captive coal blocks — Utkal D and E — with a combined deposit