US aluminum sheet maker Novelis expects to produce around 3 million mt globally in its 2014 fiscal year, around a 6% rise compared with its current output, with the majority of the growth coming from existing South American and Korean expansions CEO Phil Martens said in an interview Tuesday.
However, he said the company was not looking for any acquisitions currently. "We are very happy with our organic growth. We are not, at this point, looking at acquisitions," he said.
All of this organic growth, he said, was being driven by an increase in the amount of recycled content being used in Novelis' automotive, beverage can and specialties products.
The automotive segment is poised for growth, and Martens said Novelis, along with competitor Alcoa, is investing heavily in the market because of this.
"In the US, we expect [flat rolled product use in the automotive segment] to grow by a factor of 10 and worldwide we expect it to grow by a factor of five," he said.
Martens said that with Novelis' goal of using mostly scrap to produce its aluminum, current tight US market conditions have made it difficult to meet its scrap requirements, but the company ramped up its worldwide buying to account for the increase.
"Overall I wouldn't say it's been easy but we have managed well," he said, adding that the company made advance preparations to make sure its scrap needs were covered. "Our North American organization has done an excellent job of procuring scrap," he said
Novelis earlier Tuesday reported fiscal 2013 net income of $241 million, compared with $218 million in fiscal 2012. It posted fiscal fourth-quarter 2013 net income of $80 million, a $55 million increase compared with the same period in fiscal 2012.
The firm's full-year shipments of aluminum rolled products totaled 2.786 million mt, compared with 2.838 million mt a year earlier, while shipments in the fourth quarter were 698,000 mt, compared with 703,000 mt a year earlier.
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