Hindalco profit rise

The sharp rise in aluminium and copper prices helped Hindalco Industries more than double its Q4 profit to INR6.63bn ($146.5M), compared with INR2.69bn ($58.9M) a year earlier.

Hindalco is India’s largest aluminium producer and sales in the three months ended March 31 rose to INR54bn ($1.18bn) from INR37.7bn ($825.9M), the company said in a Bombay Stock Exchange statement.

Mr Debu Bhattacharya, managing director, Hindalco, said the global economic recovery spurred the demand for metals with many automobile companies replacing steel with aluminium to reduce the weight of their end products. The improvement in demand resulted in higher aluminium prices on the LME.

“Our profitability improved with higher production due to debottlenecking and a better product mix,” he said.