Hindalco Industries Ltd. Tuesday posted a 25% fall in its fourth-quarter net profit, hurt by higher finance cost and lower sales.
The aluminum and copper producer, part of India's diversified Aditya Birla group, said its unconsolidated net profit for the January-March period fell to 4.82 billion rupees ($86.21 million) from 6.40 billion rupees a year earlier.
Unconsolidated sales dropped about 9% to 69.16 billion rupees, while finance cost almost doubled to 1.58 billion rupees.
A fall in the prices of base metals such as copper and aluminum has hurt companies like Hindalco. At a press conference, Managing Director Debu Bhattacharya said continued weakness in metal prices on the London Metals Exchange is likely to keep pressuring Hindalco's profit margin.
Demand for aluminum is, however, likely to improve because of higher sales in the automotive industry, he added.
The company produced 142,000 metric tons of aluminum and 85,000 tons of copper cathode in the past quarter, it said without giving any comparable numbers.
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