Nalco shuts down 60 smelting pots

Faced with  power crisis borne out  of low coal supply, National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has closed down 60 out of its total 960 smelting pots in its smelter plant here today resulting in a production loss of about Rs six crore per day.

According to sources, the power crisis came up after Nalco was forced to shut down one of the seven 110 Mw units of its captive power plant (CPP) due to shortage of coal. As against the requirement of 950 Mw of power per day to run the smelter in full capacity, the production in power plant  came down to about 640 Mw. With the import of about 200 Mw, the total power available to the smelter remained at 840 Mw. This deficit situation forced the authorities to scale down output by shutting down some pots.

Sources said, there has been very low coal supply from the mines of nearby Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) for past few months reducing coal stock at the CPP to about 50,000 tonne now. The plant requires about 18,000 tonne of coal per day to run the CPP in full capacity.

“It is temporary measure to deal with the crisis situation arising out of shortage of coal supply. The pots will be activated soon to resume normal production “, says atop Nalco official.

The shut down of pots evoked wide protest from the workers union. Nirmnal Samal, the secretary of Nalco Employees Sangh affiliated to Indian Trade Union Congress said Nalco authorities did not take any pre-emptive steps to avoid shut down of pots which sends wrong  signals to outside.

The director (production), A.K.Sharma rushed to the plant to take stock of the situation.