Bhubaneswar, March 3 (IANS) For the first time in a decade, state-owned National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) Wednesday finalized a deal to export 1,800 tonnes of aluminium billets, a senior company official said.

The metal will be supplied to British metals trader LN Metals at $130 per tonne premium over the average London metal exchange cash price on a cost and freight ex-Singapore basis, the official told IANS.

NALCO, which is Asia's largest integrated aluminium producer, will ship the billets - 300 tonnes each - in six consignments from March to August, he said.

NALCO, whose sales prices are considered as an international benchmark, had issued a tender at the end of last year for export of 300 tonnes of aluminium billets but had to scrap it due to poor response it received.