Hindalco to ramp up production at MP alumina plant

Aditya Birla Group-promoted Hindalco has said it would attain its full capacity at its Singrauli alumina plant in Madhya Pradesh soon. The big-ticket investment project faced a few road-blocks pertaining to coal procurement apart from protests from environmentalists but went to stream in mid-2013.

In a response to Business Standard, Hindalco said: "Its (Singrauli alumina smelter project) final production capacity will be 3.6 lakh tonnes of aluminium metal per year. Currently, the unit is producing close to 95% of this capacity and is ramping up towards its full capacity, which is expected to be hit soon."

In May 2006, Hindalco had signed a deal with state government and had proposed a sector specific special economic zone (SEZ) to attract an investment of more than Rs 20,000 crore of which it had proposed to invest Rs 18,000 crore in phased manner and the rest was expected to come from downstream projects.

"Our total investment till date has been around Rs 13,000 crore," the company further told Business Standard. Since it could not get the Mahan coal mines in the vicinity of the project, it is now procuring coal at its own. "Coal is being procured from the market, through a mix of e-auctions, purchases from traders and imports," the company said. Hindalco had joined hands with Essar for coal blocks.

Had it been an SEZ as it was proposed it could have attracted investment from downstream projects. However the company skipped the plan for SEZ project for "timely completion of the project and production".

It had said in 2006 that there was tremendous scope for setting up world-class quality units for manufacturing downstream products such as aluminum composite panels for architecture purposes; painted sheet for roofing paneling; units for automobiles; sophisticated cookware; heat exchange units for chemical plants; sports bicycles; forged components for aerospace, aircraft, and automobiles; defense items; and research and development units for aluminum processing and finishing.

Also against the expected direct and indirect employment of 10,000 people the company has around 1,400 direct employees on its payrolls. "We also generate indirect employment to the tune of around 3,500 people," it said.