National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), a 'Navratna' company under the Schedule 'A' category of CPSEs, is on the way to adding one more year of experience to its four decades of excellence in the mining, metal and power industries. Established on January 7, 1981, NALCO has evolved over the past 44 years into India's largest integrated producer of bauxite, alumina, aluminium, and power, demonstrating unwavering commitment, resilience, and dedication. The year 2024 further reflected its perseverance, echoing impressive achievements in both operations and financial performance. Although NALCO follows the financial year calendar from April 1 to March 31 for its operation, we are taking an opportunity at the beginning of 2025 to reiterate NALCO's year-to-data achievements.
NALCO's remarkable financial growth
In the second quarter of FY2024-25 ended September 30, 2024, NALCO saw a fourfold growth in net profit. From NR 206 crore (US$24.4 million) in Q2 FY2023-24, the company's net profit increased to INR 1062 crore (US$125.7 million) over the year, reflecting a stupendous growth of 415 per cent. During the same period of this year, NALCO's total income from operations also increased by 32 per cent from INR 4001 crore (US$473.6 million) to INR 3044 core (US$360.37 million). EBITDA soared by 290 per cent from INR 397 crore (US$47 million) to INR 1,549 crore (US$183.3 million).
Shri Sanjay Lohiya, IAS, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of NALCO, said: "Q2 results are a testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees, partners, and stakeholders and the collective ability to adapt and navigate market challenges. He said that as we move forward, we will continue to build on this momentum, drive operational excellence, and explore new opportunities to enhance our market position. I am confident that together, we will further strengthen NALCO's position, create more values, and continue delivering exceptional results in the coming quarters and beyond."
In the entire first half FY2025, NALCO's total net profit amounted to INR 1,663 crore (US$196.9 million) as against INR 556 crore (US$65.82 million) in H1 FY2024, up by 199 per cent Y-o-Y. This robust H1 profit could be achieved due to the best-ever performance in domestic metal sales, reaching 221,966 tonnes.
For the rest of the year, NALCO's net profit needs to achieve 20 per cent or more to exceed the previous year's net profit of INR 2,060 crore (approx. USD$248 million), which could be achieved due to sales turnover of INR 13,149 crore (USD$ 1.57 billion).
Operational highlights
In mid-August 2024, NALCO reported significant progress in its production operations for the current fiscal year, achieving 97 per cent of its production capacity target. The company's GGM(Smelter) and EPO - Executive Director(S&P), S Subrahmanyam NERALLA, confirmed that 940 of the 960 pots at its smelter plant were operational daily, contributing to a total production of 0.17 million tonnes as of August 16, 2024.
NALCO's ambitious production target for this fiscal year is 0.46 million tonnes of aluminium, aiming to replicate last year's output.
NERALLA also said that with a few months left, NALCO is well-positioned to meet its production goals of this year and reinforce its status as a key player in the aluminium industry.
In the financial year 2023-24, NALCO touched some critical milestones, such as the highest-ever bauxite excavation of 7600,230 tonnes and alumina hydrate production of 21.24 lakh tonnes while operating at over 100 per cent capacity utilisation. Additionally, the company achieved the highest cast metal production of 463,000 tonnes at its aluminium smelter and attained record metal sales of 470,000 tonnes.
Agreement and collaborations
Changes in leadership
Responses
