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With robust prices and improving demand, ICRA, a rating agency, said that it has revised non-ferrous metals sector outlook to positive from stable. The agency has revised outlook despite a near-term concern of coal availability and increased cost of production for the non-ferrous metal companies.

ICRA’s Senior Vice-President Corporate Sector Ratings -- Jayanta Roy said given the continued earnings surge, an expectation of 6-7% demand growth in current financial year (FY22) and deleveraging of balance sheets supported by healthy accruals, the industry outlook has been revised to positive from stable.

He added that the credit metrics of the companies in ICRA’s sample set are expected to witness a significant improvement with a projected total Debt/OPBDITA of 1.2 times and interest cover of 8.7 times during FY22 compared to a total Debt/ OPBDITA of 2.2 times and interest cover of 5.2 times in FY 2021.