CNBC TV18 quoted Mr Satish Pai, managing director of Hindalco Industries as saying that there was a slight dip in margins on QoQ because of weak aluminium London Metal Exchange price. Mr Pai said that “We kept out cost of production flat Q2 to Q3 in spite of tightness in coal and coal e-auction prices going up. We could manage the coal chain better and hence we could maintain our profitability.”
Mr Pai said that “Our aluminium EBITDA is at 21 percent which is probably the highest in the world right now compared to our peers.” According to him, the aluminium outlook completely depends on US-China trade war. Therefore, he expects aluminium LME prices to rise if US-China trade concerns ease.
Talking about imports, Mr Pai said that “Because the US right now has got anti-dumping and tariffs on Chinese aluminium, we have seen that imports into India, especially from China, have gone up by 64 percent. So in the short-term imports into India have sharply gone up and today 60 percent of the domestic consumption is imported and that is a big concern for us.”
