Aluminium production in India set to shoot up

MUMBAI （Commodity Online）: India is set to ramp up its aluminium production by 2015 to 5 million tones.

According to the government, aluminium production in the country will touch 5 million tonnes per annum by 2015 from the present 1.3 MTPA on back of capacity expansion programme by metal producers.

It, however, cautioned against over exploitation of domestic reserves and stressed the need for conservation for future use besides exploring new resources.

All the major primary metal producers are expanding their capacity… It is strongly believed that capacity of 5 MT production by 2015 will be achieved.

Indian aluminium industry will be among top three major producers globally by 2015. The metal production was likely to grow to 10 MTPA by 2020.

India produces only 1.318 million tonnes of the metal at present in comparison to 40 MT world production. Its per capita consumption of the metal is 1.3 kg.

Aluminium finds wide application in the infrastructure, construction and transportation sector and as a industry holds a strategic economic importance for the country.

The aluminium players in the country have embarked on capacity augmentation programmes.

Meanwhile, Expression of Interest （EoI） for the Rs 10,000 crore alumina refinery and aluminium smelter by Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation turned global when global players US based AluChem Inc, Russia based UC RUSAL and Dubai based Dubai Aluminium Limited （DUBAL） entered the fray.

National players like National Aluminium Company （NALCO）, JSW steel and Jaiprakash Industries had already responded to the （EoI）, which is a part of GMDC’s recent policy of adding value to minerals before it is transported out of the state’s boundries. The project is to come up in Kutch district of the state.

GMDC has huge reserves of plant grade and non plant Bauxite at Gadhsisa in Kutch and Kalyanpur in Jamnagar （Saurashtra region）. While Gadhsisa has a potential of mining one million TPA Bauxite, Kalyanpur has a capacity of 1.25 million TPA. Plant grade bauxite is used in refractories and chemical industries, while non plant grade bauxite is exported.

The bids stipulated that companies should have executed an alumina refinery or aluminium smelter or a power plant or a cement plant or steel plant with a minimum investment of Rs 1,500 crore.