Hindalco's aluminium production to dip this fiscal

NEW DELHI: Leading aluminium maker Hindalco Industries on Tuesday said production of the metal this fiscal will be 20,000 tonnes lower, as bad

weather has affected operations of its Hirakud unit in Orissa.

"Hindalco Industries informs BSE that heavy rains and continuous bad weather, including lightning, have affected the operations of the Hirakud Aluminium Smelter of the company.

"... As a consequence of this unforeseen outage, Hirakud metal production is expected to be lower by around 20,000 tonnes for the current fiscal," the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The unit has an annual production capacity of 1.43 lakh tonnes per annum.

"A team of experts have now completed the assessment of the situation and have formulated an action plan for quick revival of operations, as well as certain remedial actions for the future," it said.

As per the action plan, the company said the unit will be re-started in a phased manner and the exercise is expected to be completed by end-August, 2010.

Further, Hindalco said, "Efforts are being made to cushion the impact of the loss by appropriate management action to optimise profitability across all other business segments of the company."