Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:07 PM IST
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Hindalco Industries Ltd., India's top aluminium and copper producer, on Thursday reported a near doubling in its quarterly profit on higher aluminium prices rose and a turnaround in its copper business.
Hindalco, part of the Aditya Birla group, said it expected aluminium demand in China to remain a price driver in the final quarter of fiscal 2006/7, despite a slowdown in U.S. consumption.
The company, which earned 58 percent of its revenue in the last fiscal year from aluminium, said aluminium revenue in the December quarter rose 15 percent from a year earlier due to higher sales of value-added products and a focus on speciality alumina.
Copper prices "continued to come down to more realistic levels" on a fall in Chinese demand, Hindalco said, adding treatment and refining margins could come under pressure in the coming year due to tight supply of copper concentrate.
Hindalco said net profit for the October-December quarter rose 92 percent to 6.44 billion rupees ($146 million) from a revised 3.36 billion rupees a year ago.
Net sales in the quarter rose 62 percent to 46.56 billion rupees from a year earlier.
A Reuters poll of 10 brokerages had forecast a net profit of 6.4 billion rupees on sales of 46.07 billion.
Value-added production rose to 67 percent of total primary metal production during the quarter from 59 percent a year earlier.
The copper division, which had made a loss in the year-ago quarter after a blast at a smelter slashed production, swung to profit as revenue grew 119 percent.
Ahead of the results, shares in Hindalco, valued at $4.4 billion, closed 3.8 percent higher at 175.25 rupees in a Mumbai market that rose 1.2 percent.
The stock rose 1.6 percent in the December quarter, underperforming a 10.7 percent gain in the benchmark index.
India's state-run National Aluminium Co. Ltd. reported a 46 percent rise in quarterly profit to 5.72 billion rupees earlier this week.
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