Aditya Birla Group Company, Hindalco Industries Limited’s performance for the Q2 has been significantly better than that of the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Net sales and operating revenue at INR 6,272 crore in Q2FY12 were up 7% over Q2FY11 driven by higher volume and improved realization, despite lower sale of value added products.

PBITDA increased by 8% with higher volume and realization in aluminum business and better TcRc and by product realization in copper business. Other income was higher by INR 94 crore driven by improved treasury yield and enhanced corpus and is inclusive of INR 60 crore dividend received from Dahej Harbor and Infrastructure Limited, the company’s wholly owned subsidiary. Higher rates led to higher interest and financing charges of INR 68 crore vis à vis INR 53 crore in Q2FY11.

The results for the quarter have been impacted very severely by the cost escalations and constrained bauxite and coal availability during the monsoon. Net profit increased by 16% to INR 503 crore in Q2FY12 from INR 434 crore in Q2FY11. EPS stood at INR 2.62 in the current quarter vis à vis INR 2.27 in Q2FY11.

For the half year ended September 30th 2011, revenues rose by 11%, PBITDA increased by 12% with increase in net profit by 18%. In Q2FY12 aluminum revenues were higher at INR 2,213 crore up from INR 1,911 crore in Q2FY11, a rise of 16% as a result of higher volumes and better aluminum prices on the LME. Last year’s performance was impacted by smelter outage at Hirakud. Despite strong inflationary pressures and constrained supply of bauxite and coal during the monsoon, profit before interest and taxes was sustained.

In the copper business, revenues were at INR 4,062 crore vs INR 3,951 crore in Q2FY11 on the back of higher LME and by product credits. Copper volumes were lower on account of shutdown of one of the smelters up to mid July. However, the copper business being a custom smelting operation, with offset hedging program, was not significantly impacted by the gain or loss on changes in LME and foreign exchange fluctuations. Profit before interest and taxes was higher at INR 148 crore from INR 129 crore due to higher TcRc and by product credit offset to some extent by higher energy costs, lower volume due to shutdown and related expenses.