Aditya Birla Group’s Hindalco Industries on Friday reported a 21.3 per cent year on year rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 4,741 crore in the second quarter of 2025-26 (Q2FY26), driven by its Indian business and its US-based subsidiary, Novelis.
Photograph: Vivek Prakash/Reuters
Its revenue jumped by 13.5 per cent to Rs 66,058 crore in Q2FY26 on a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis.
However, Hindalco Industries’ other income decreased by 33.7 per cent to Rs 713 crore in the quarter under review.
“Aluminium upstream Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) was up 22 per cent at Rs 4,500 crore.
“The aluminium downstream business also had a great quarter with Ebitda up 69 per cent at Rs 261 crore, and the copper business was in line with our guidance of over Rs 600 crore, had a reasonably good quarter even though TC/RC (treatment and refining charges) are down,” said Satish Pai, managing director (MD), Hindalco Industries in a virtual interaction with the media on Friday.
He further added that despite the recent fire incident at Oswego, a part of the company’s aluminium recycling vertical at Novelis’ New York plant delivered a strong performance with Ebitda per tonne at $505.
“We don’t have to make any provisions (referring to the recent fire incident), we only have to spend some cash quickly to repair the plant and fix everything. Hindalco will put in an equity infusion of $750 million in the next few months to support Novelis and provide financial liquidity,” said Pai, adding that this amount will be raised from its subsidiary in Holland and will be raised in debt.
“Hindalco is at a negative net debt. The balance sheet is very strong.
“We are going to leverage that balance sheet to put equity (of $750 million) into Novelis right now,” he emphasised.
The company had stated that its Novelis Oswego plant was expected to restart the hot mill in December, and he noted that this is expected to start a little earlier by the end of November.
The company’s profit before interest, depreciation, and tax (PBIDT) rose by 8.1 per cent to Rs 9,680 crore in the July-September quarter compared with the same quarter last year.
“Novelis will become a much leaner company going forward.
“We are very confident that we will probably blow past the $300 million cost reduction target by FY28.
“Additionally, the administration (in the US) is extremely supportive of US manufacturing, we are actively talking to them about short-term support,” Pai said.
In the aluminium upstream business, the company has announced the second phase of Aditya Aluminium expansion of 193 kilotonne (KT ), with a project cost of Rs 10,225 crore and expected commissioning in FY29, the release stated.
This amount is expected to function through its internal accrual and debt, said a stock exchange filing.
On the other hand, its copper metal sales were down by three per cent to 113 KT in Q2 Y-o-Y.
“Indian demand is holding up very strongly.
“All sectors, packaging, automotive, and electrical, have been very strong.
“We are now 75 per cent domestic sales and only 25 per cent exports.
“In China, aluminium demand seems quite stable, but building and construction are weak, but EVs and solar are pulling a lot of aluminium.
“Overall, people are quite bullish on the price of aluminium right now, and Q3 in India will be another strong quarter,” he added.
