India's National Aluminium Co. Ltd., or NALCO, booked its highest net profit in the past 10 years, with 13.42 billion Indian rupees for fiscal 2018, surging year over year from 6.69 billion rupees, bolstered by record net sales of 93.77 billion rupees.
The company said May 27 that production from the two mines at its Panchpatmali bauxite operations hit an all-time high of 7 million tonnes during the year ended March 31, while the alumina refinery produced 2.1 million tonnes.
NALCO's aluminum smelter also set a new record with cast metal production of 426,000 tonnes, after steadily increasing over the last five years.
With the improved production levels, NALCO's export earnings also reached a record 40.76 billion rupees, a 12% increase over fiscal 2017, while EBITDA rose to 16.97 billion rupees from 14.88 billion rupees and CapEx continued to rise for the third year, increasing 23.5% from the previous 12-month period.
The miner declared its highest ever dividend payment for the fiscal year totaling 9.08 billion rupees, with 5.47 billion rupees paid to the Indian government.
NALCO is targeting revenues of about 93.50 billion rupees in fiscal 2019, with alumina and aluminum production pegged at 2.1 million tonnes and 4.2 million tonnes, respectively.
As of May 25, US$1 was equivalent to 67.80 Indian rupees.
