Sterlite Industries India Ltd. on Monday announced the full commissioning of its new 245,000 tons per annum aluminium smelter, comprising 288 pots has been completed successfully. The performance of all pots has been improving steadily and full capacity is expected to be reached by the end of this financial year.
All four units of the 540 MW power plant continue to operate well, Sterlite Industries said. This expansion takes the total aluminium capacity of BALCO to 345,000 tons per annum with full energy-integration.
Furthermore, the de-bottlenecking of the Tuticorin copper smelter is now complete and the smelter is now fully operational. This increase in capacity by 100,000 tons per annum to 400,000 tons per annum has been achieved ahead of schedule.
The smelting and refining costs at Tuticorin are one of the lowest worldwide and were at US cents 5.2 per pound for the six months ended on September 30, 2006. The expansion will further help in reducing the cost of production, Sterlite Industries said.