New Delhi | Oct 15, 2016: The National Aluminium Company Limited (Nalco) has put up an impressive performance in the first half of 2016-17 fiscal.

In the production front, while the bauxite mining was recorded at 35.08 lakh tonnes, a 23.6 per cent increase over corresponding period of the previous financial year, the alumina hydrate production was up 5.1 per cent at 9.68 lakh tonnes against the corresponding period of last year.

The Navratna company produced 1.88 lakh tonnes of aluminium, which is 4.2 per cent higher than the production of the corresponding period of FY 2015-16. Similarly, its net power generation has also gone up by 3.6 per cent at 2945 million units. The national PSU has generated 130 million units of wind power registering an increase of 14.7 per cent as compared to the corresponding figure of the previous fiscal.

In terms of sales too, the company the company’s alumina hydrate sales was up 8.5 per cent at 5.81 lakh tonnes. The company sold 1.81 lakh tonnes of aluminium, which is up 5.8 per cent compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

Despite sluggish market, the company made a PAT of Rs 731 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 135 crore in the first quarter of current fiscal, when 70 per cent aluminium companies world over have reported loss, as also reduced production, reeling under heavy pressure.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines Piyush Goyal has asked the Nalco to prepare a prospective future plan to raise its aluminium smelting capacity to 20 lakh tonnes per annum from the present 4.6 lakh tonnes. The allotment of Pottangi bauxite mines and Utkal D and E coal blocks, besides recent bridge linkage from the Coal India, would lead the company towards realisation of this vision.

The Nalco has set a capex target of Rs 1021 crore for 2016-17, which includes projects like development of Utkal D & E Coal Blocks, Wind Power Projects of 50 MW each in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, addition of 5th stream in the existing Alumina Refinery at Damanjodi in Odisha and Aluminium Park at Angul in Odisha.

(Source: http://orissadiary.com/)