Hindalco's Utkal plant seen attaining financial closure in 3 months

Hindalco Industries is expected to attain financial closure of its proposed 1.5-million-tonne Utkal alumina refinery project in three months, a company official said today.

“We have no problem of funding. We have the money and most of our projects are greenfield. So, they will take place over a period of time. We are not putting our projects on the backburner,” the official said.

The Utkal project, which was earlier a joint venture with Canada-based Alcan, was to cost Rs 4,500 crore according to initial estimates. Alcan exited the joint venture in July 2007.

The company had earlier said it would need to raise Rs 25,000 crore for its expansion plans over five years for expanding aluminium and copper capacity by nearly three times.The loans, with five to seven years tenure, have been tied up at around 12.5 per cent.