BW Real 500 - Non Financial #11: Hindalco Industries' Metal Power

Hindalco Industries is the metals flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group. A $18 billion metals powerhouse, Hindalco is an industry leader in aluminium and copper. Hindalco’s acquisition of Aleris Corporation in April 2020, through its subsidiary Novelis Inc., has cemented the company's position as the world’s largest flat-rolled products player and recycler of aluminium.

Hindalco delivered yet another strong consolidated performance in FY21, reflecting its resilience to withstand external shocks and commodity market cycles. Hindalco registered a consolidated business EBITDA of Rs 18,896 crore on a turnover of Rs 131,985 crore in FY21. Its aluminium business in India and Novelis continued to deliver steady operational performance, despite tough market conditions due to Covid in the earlier part of the year. The major enablers were stable operations, lower input prices, better cost efficiencies and a strong revival of demand. All the plants operated at their designed capacities during the year, except for some impact in Q1 due to the Covid-induced lockdowns in India. In FY21, more than 80 per cent of Hindalco’s consolidated EBITDA was delinked from the volatility of the global aluminium prices taking together the EBITDA of Novelis, copper and India aluminium downstream value-added products (VAP).

Novelis continued to diversify its product mix with the share of beverage can sheet at 60 per cent, automotive body sheets at 16 per cent, specialties at 22 per cent and aero at 2 per cent in FY21. Novelis reported the share of recycled contents at 61 per cent and this has been continuously rising as the world’s largest recycler of aluminium, the company said.

"Through this pandemic, Hindalco's people and systems have been battle tested and are better prepared to face any competitive challenge or serious external disruption. That is our best assurance of sustainability and continued collective prosperity," said Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Hindalco.