Hindalco plans to sell 65% aluminum overseas this year

Hindalco Industries plans to sell about two-thirds of its output overseas this year as local demand gets hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Exports during the year that started April will increase to as much as 65 per cent of total output compared with 50 per cent last year, Managing Director Satish Pai said, adding the company expects to sell 75 per cent to 80 per cent of its metal output to overseas customers in the April-june quarter.

India’s demand in the past few months was decimated by the world’s biggest lockdown that was imposed in March. While the measures are being slowly eased, the country is heading for its first annual contraction in economic growth in more than four decades.

“In the months of April and May, domestic demand was quite low due to the lockdown. This condition is currently mitigated by higher exports by domestic producers,” Pai said in an interview. “Hindalco has exported around 80 per cent90 per cent of its output in the last two months.” Higher shipments from India would add to global supplies that are estimated to record a surplus of 3 million tonnes this year as the virus outbreak hurts demand. Inventories at the London Metal Exchange are near the highest in more than three years and prices have contracted about 11 per cent this year.

Kumar Mangalam Birla’s Hindalco produced a record 1.3 million tons of aluminum last year. It exports mainly to South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, US, Brazil, and Japan.