Hindalco to complete phase-I of Hirakud plant expansion by Jan

Hindalco Industries, the Aditya Birla group’s flagship company, is set to complete the first phase expansion of its Hirakud aluminium smelter by December or January 2011. The company missed its original deadline, September 30, due to torrential rain and lightning in July.

In phase-I, the company is expanding the capacity of its Hirakud smelter to 161 kilo tonne per annum (ktpa) from 155 ktpa by adding 28 pots.

“Phase-I, which was to be completed by the second quarter of the current financial year, is still under phased commissioning. Out of the 28 pots, 18 have been commissioned. The balance will be commissioned by December 2010 or January 2011. The delay, of about a quarter, in commissioning the balance pots is due to the outage in early July,” a company spokesperson said in an email.

The company was able to add 18 pots by the end of the first quarter, but could not add any pot in the second quarter due to rain and power outage. The company was hit by a production loss of 20,000 tonnes due to the outage.

Moreover, the site grading, which was 80 per cent complete by the end of July, has not moved further. “The site grading was completed to the extent of 80 per cent by July 2010. The balance site grading is not on the project activity path at present. It will become necessary only once certain designs are finalised and the ordered equipment arrive,” the spokesperson said.

Hindalco stressed the project activity progressed in accordance with the schedule during the last quarter. “Major orders have been placed. We expect the project schedule to progress within the announced timeline of completion.”

The company expects no delay in commissioning phase-II — expansion from 161 ktpa to 235 ktpa. “For Phase-II (addition of 80 pots), the projected timelines remain the same — commissioning of 30 pots by December 2011 and the remaining 50 pots by March 2012.”

After the production loss of 20,000 tonnes and the delay in commissioning, Hindalco is trying to find a solution to extreme weather conditions.

The spokesperson said, “Regarding the power outage that happened in July, alongside the restoration of the affected pots at Hirakud currently, Hindalco has also constituted an expert team to identify steps to avoid the recurrence of such events. Accordingly, corrective action is being taken, including connectivity to a more stable (220 Kv) grid.”