By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO), India’s second largest aluminum producer, Thursday announced profit after tax of Rs.5.25 billion ($125 million) for the first quarter this fiscal against Rs.4.47 billion in the same period last year, a growth of 17.6 percent.
The turnover of the company rose by 24.8 percent to Rs.16.06 billion during the quarter from Rs.12.87 billion of the year-ago period.
On the sales front also NALCO claimed to have put up an impressive performance. It sold 221,405 tonnes of alumina in the April-June quarter, up from 207,765 tonnes of the the corresponding period last year.
Meanwhile, the state-level single window clearance authority of the Orissa government has cleared NALCO’s Rs.163.45 billion investment proposal to set up a 500,000-tonne smelter and 1,260-MW captive power plant at Brajarajnagar in Jharsuguda district.
The proposal now awaits the approval of apex-level committee chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the company said in a statement.
It added that the Rs.50 billion phase II expansion projects of NALCO were nearing completion.
The company has also drawn ambitious plans to invest around Rs.400 billion in various greenfield projects in India and abroad, including Indonesia, South Africa and Iran.
At the beginning of this year, NALCO signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indonesia, to set up a 500,000-tonne smelter and a 1,250-MW captive power plant in that country.
The company plans to invest around Rs.140 billion in this greenfield project, for which Tanjung Enim and Tanjung Api-Api are identified as likely sites.
NALCO is also pushing ahead its plan to open a new bauxite mine in Andhra Pradesh and set up an alumina refinery there.