Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- National Aluminium Co., India's second-biggest maker of the metal, said second-quarter profit surged as rising demand boosted prices. Its shares rose.
Net income rose to 5.95 billion rupees ($132 million), or 9.23 rupees a share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30, from 2.83 billion rupees, or 4.4 rupees, a year ago. That beat the 5.38 billion-rupee median forecast of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Sales rose 38 percent to 14.41 billion rupees.
National Aluminium and rival Hindalco Industries benefited from prices that were 37 percent higher on average from a year earlier quarter on higher demand from China, the world's biggest user of the metal. China's demand will expand by as much as 20 percent a year till 2010, Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd. said in August. Hindalco said Oct. 18 profit almost doubled.
``Companies don't have much to worry in the next one to two years as aluminum demand remains strong and new capacities will take time to come on stream,'' Dipak Acharya, a fund manager at BOB Asset Management in Mumbai, said. ``I remain bullish.''
National Aluminium, which increased prices by as much as 5 percent in October to 125,950 rupees a ton, will raise prices tomorrow by at least 5,000 rupees, Chairman C.R. Pradhan said today in a phone interview.
Aluminum prices have risen 10.2 percent this month on the London Metal Exchange. The metal traded at $2,820 a ton, up 0.4 percent on the exchange at 10:16 a.m. London time.
Aluminum may average as much as $1.20 a pound in 2007, or $2,645 a metric ton, compared with $1.15 this year, as higher power costs curb supply, Robin Bhar, an analyst at UBS AG said in an Oct. 9 report.
National Aluminium shares rose 1.8 percent to 231.05 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange at 2:54 p.m. local time.
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