NALCO up INR 6000 crore Phase III expansion

National Aluminium Company is mulling to undertake its Phase III expansion envisaging an investment of INR 6000 crore.

Mr AK Srivastava CMD of the company said that the Phase III expansion intends to ramp up the capacity of the company's bauxite mining from 6.3 million tonnes to 9.0 million tonnes alumina output from 2.1 million tonnes to 3.0 million tonnes and aluminium production from 0.46 million tonnes to 0.75 million tonnes.

In tune with this, the captive power generation capacity is expected to go up by about 660 Mw from 1200 Mw now. The company's ongoing INR 4200 crore second phase expansion program is almost complete except for delay in commissioning of the work in its alumina refinery and bauxite mining complex at Damanjodi in Koraput district.

The complex was raided by Naxalites in April last year, leading to death of 10 Central Industrial Security Force personnel and consequent delay in implementation of the expansion work. Hence, the completion of the expansion of the refinery and bauxite mining complex which was scheduled in June, this year has been pushed back to January 2011.

Meanwhile, the navratna aluminium company has scaled a new high in production of bauxite, alumina and aluminium in 2009 to 2010. Despite the Maoist attack on the company's bauxite mines at Damanjodi, Nalco registered its highest ever bauxite production of 4.879 million tonnes in 2009 to 2010, surpassing the previous best of 4.854 million tonnes clocked in 2005 to 2006, achieving a capacity utilization of 101.64%. The company posted 3.8% growth over its bauxite output of 4.7 million tonnes in 2008 to 2009.

Similarly, the company's output of alumina hydrate at its alumina refinery at Damajodi stood at 1.592 million tonnes in 2009 to 2010, recording a capacity utilization of 101.05% and getting past the previous best production figure of 1.590 million tonnes in 2005 to 2006.

Nalco's aluminium production at 0.431 million tonnes in 2009 to 2010 marked a 19.4% growth over 0.361 million tonnes achieved in 2008 to 2009. Besides, Nalco achieved the highest ever domestic metal sale of 0.289 million tonnes surpassing the previous high of 0.271 million tonnes in 2008 to 2009 with an increase of 6.5%.

The company also achieved the highest-ever metal export of 0.147 million tonnes against the previous year's export of 82,314 tonnes, recording a growth of 78.5% and surpassing the previous best of 0.133 million tonnes in 2004 to 2005. Similarly, despite acute coal shortage and severe power fluctuations, Nalco's captive power plant, which feeds to the company's smelter plant at Angul, achieved the highest ever power generation of 6295 million units. This marked a growth of 13.6% over 5541 million units achieved in 2008 to 2009.

(Sourced from Business Standard)