How were the Hindalco Industries results for the Dec-21 third quarter?

The last few quarters have been extremely favourable for Hindalco and Dec-21 quarter was no exception. Hindalco again posted record numbers for Dec-21 quarter. The Canadian Novelis business and the India aluminium business may have been flat in terms of top line but they gained from operating efficiencies and working capital efficiencies. Here is a summary of Hindalco numbers with focus on India aluminium, Novelis and copper business.

Hindalco reported 43.8% higher net sales at Rs.50,272 crore for the Dec-21 quarter on a yoy consolidated basis. The Canadian Novelis business reported flat shipments at 930KT due to the ongoing semiconductor shortage. The India aluminium business saw sales of aluminium metal about 3% higher at 325 KT in the quarter. There was an 8% growth in sales of value added products or VAP aluminium at 86 KT. In copper vertical, cathode production doubled to 102 KT while overall metals sales volumes climbed 50% at 110KT.

Operating profits of Hindalco were up 39.9% at record levels of Rs.7,580 crore. Novelis EBITDA was 15% higher at $506 million with EBITDA/tonne at $544. India aluminium business saw record 131% surge in EBITDA to Rs.3,376 crore, on the back of better operational efficiencies and superior downstream performance as well as product mix. Copper EBITDA was up 63% yoy at Rs.390 crore on improved product realizations. EBITDA margins surged from 28% to 41% in Dec-21 quarter on operating efficiency boost.

Net profits for the Dec-21 quarter were up 96% at a record Rs3,675 crore. One thing is that the dividends of operating efficiencies and better product mix favouring downstream products got transmitted. Global aluminium prices rallied 44% on the LME from $1,916/tonne to $2,762/tonne. PAT margins for Hindalco improved from 5.37% in the Dec-20 quarter to 7.31% in the Dec-21 quarter. Even the high frequency momentum was favourable with the PAT margins higher by 14 bps on a sequential basis.