NALCO reported higher EBITDA in Q3FY21 driven by strong performance by the aluminum business driven by higher LME aluminium prices and favourable costs. Sridhar Patra, CMD at NALCO discussed the numbers.

“COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the production during April 2020 to August 2020. The plant was operating at around 65 percent of capacity utilisation. Despite of that we are sure that we are achieving 95 percent of the last year production and we are quite confident of achieving the same,” he said.

In terms of aluminium production, he said, “Last year we achieved 21.6 lakh tonne of alumina and 4.1 lakh tonne of aluminium production. We are making all the efforts to cross aluminium production of 4.1 lakh tonne in FY21.”

“As far as alumina is concerned, we are trying to meet our normal capacity but due to COVID it has impacted. However, we are confident we will achieve more than 95 percent of previous year production,” he mentioned.

In terms of prices, he said, “Alumina prices ranges between 15 percent and 16.5-17 percent of the metal. Alumina constitute almost one-third of the cost of metal. At present in Q4, we expect alumina prices to hover around USD 320-330 per tonne on an average. In Q4 aluminium prices are expected to hover around USD 2000-2200 per tonne.”

For more, watch the video...

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Feb 17, 2021 1:42 PM IST