Hindalco Industries Q2 profit flat at Rs 2,196 crore

Aditya Birla Groups metal flagship Hindalco Industries on Thursday said its consolidated profit was almost flat at Rs 2,196 crore in the September quarter. The company had posted a consolidated profit of Rs 2,205 crore in the year-ago period, Hindalco Industries said in a regulatory filing.

Segment-wise performance

The companys consolidated total income during the July-September period dropped to Rs 54,632 crore from Rs 56,504 crore in the year-ago period, it said. In his post-earnings call with the media, Hindalco Industries Managing Director Satish Pai said the second quarter was good for the company and added that all segments of the company did pretty well.

All the business segments of the company experienced improved quarter-on-quarter q-o-q performance. The copper business achieved its highest quarterly Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation EBITDA of Rs 653 crore, a 23 per cent rise q-o-q, due to highest-ever metal shipments. Novelis reported another quarter of improvement in adjusted EBITDA and EBITDA per tonne backed by higher shipments, largely from beverage cans.

In the Indian aluminium segment, upstream business EBITDA was Rs 2,074 crore, up 7 per cent q-o-q, and downstream EBITDA was Rs 171 crore, 16 per cent higher q-o-q due to increased shipments.

Cost control and downstream performance

We have maintained momentum driven by our focus on cost control and a solid performance by all our downstream segments, Pai said. On factors driving the demand for copper and aluminium, he said it is due to the governments electrification projects and the improvement in the performance of the auto sector.

Concerns over Chinese aluminium foil imports

He also flagged concerns about the rise in imports of Chinese aluminium foil, used considerably in food and pharmaceutical packaging. We are noticing that China is trying to target the Indian market... So we are seeing aluminium foil, and some products from China. Import has gone up in the last couple of months... we are watching that closely, he said.

Hindalco is the worlds largest aluminium company by revenues and serves more than half of the countrys copper requirement.