Stock Insight: Heavy Metal

India's growth story is bringing windfalls for many sectors. Like many other sizzling commodity stories, the aluminium industry in the country is set to hog the limelight with the growing emphasis on infrastructure development and India's growing stature as a global manufacturing hub for automobiles. These, coupled with drivers such as rising aluminium prices and a rebound in alumina, after the recent dip, could boost the fortunes of aluminium producers like National Aluminium Company Ltd (Idirect Code: NATALU). Nalco - the largest alumina producer and the second largest producer of primary aluminum in the country, next to Hindalco (Idirect Code: HINDAL) - is a fully-integrated company with access to huge reserves of high-quality bauxite and 100 per cent captive power generation facilities. The public sector undertaking enjoys a significant competitive edge over its peers due to low production cost and a high operating margin of over 50 per cent. The company's presence in the entire value chain with operations in mining, refining, smelting and access to high-quality bauxite and captive power plants (CPP) auger well for the long-run. The low cost of production also brings

This article was originally published on November 01, 2006.