92 DALAL STREET INVESTMENT JOURNAL I JULY 22 - AUG 4, 2019 DSIJ. in^
Financial Review For FY19
Metals
T
he metal sector plays a vital role in economic
growth of the country. The sector has major
importance by virtue of its role as raw material in
almost every industry. India’s metal industry is
driven on the back of huge deposits of natural
resources in the form of minerals like copper, chromite, iron
ore, manganese, bauxite and gold. The Indian metal industry is
divided into two main divisions, namely, ferrous (iron-based)
and non-ferrous (non-iron-based). The iron-based industry
segment includes the manufacturing of steel such as carbon
steel, ferro chrome steel and stainless steel, while the non-iron-
based category includes the production of copper, tin, brass,
lead, zinc, aluminum, and manganese. The main operations of
these metal industries in India are mining of ores, refining of
the ore, casting, alloying, sheet, and rolling into foils.
The non-ferrous metal industry is led by Vedanta Ltd in
terms of market cap. The company has its presence in
aluminium, copper, zinc, etc. Aluminium is the second most
used metal in the world after steel and the third most available
element in the earth constituting almost 7.3 per cent by mass.India has the seventh largest bauxite reserves of around 2,908.85
million tonnes. Bauxite is the key raw material for aluminium
production. India’s aluminium production capacity has
increased to 4.1 MMTPA, driven by investments worth `1.2 lakh
crore (US$ 18.54 billion). The total imports of aluminium and
aluminium products in India during FY18 stood at US$ 3.55
billion, whereas in FY19, it reached US$ 4.16 billion.National Aluminium Company (NALCO), a Central
government owned entity, is set to join the club of million-tonne
producers in the metal segment by 2020. NALCO is ready with
investments of about US$ 3.72 billion for increasing its alumina,
aluminium and power production capacities. In April 2017,
NALCO readied about US$ 3.72 billion investments for
increasing its alumina, aluminium and power production
capacities. The consumption of aluminium in India is estimated