Nalco plans to raise output.

Witnessing demand recovery, State owned National Aluminium Company Ltd. (Nalco) has planned to increase aluminium output marginally. Recently it reopened 10 aluminium-producing pots at its Angul smelter in Odisha.

Last fiscal Nalco had reduced its capacity utilization by a third because of the sluggish aluminium market and lower LME realization and coal shortage. It had shut down 329 of its total 960 pots or 4.6 lakh tonnes a year of its smelter. Now operational pot numbers have gone up to 641. A Nalco pot can produce 1.37 tonnes a day.

According to Nalco CMD Angsuman Das, 'It’s a small, but significant step' considering the change in the outlook. Nalco, which is yet to announce the results of Q4 of 2013-14, in a statement said it was running profitably.

HBL