Nalco to add 1 MTPA stream to Damanjodi refinery

To commission 2nd wind power plant in two months

National Aluminium Company (Nalco), a navratna public sector undertaking (PSU) under the Union ministry of mines, plans to add the fifth stream to its alumina refinery at Damanjodi in Koraput district.

“Subject to availability of Pottangi mines, your company has plans to go for fifth stream refinery based on medium pressure digestion technology,” Ansuman Das, chairman cum managing director (CMD) of Nalco told the company’s shareholders at the company’s 32nd annual general meeting here on Friday.

The capacity of the stream will be approximately one million tonne per annum (mtpa) and investment will be around Rs 5,000 crore, he added.

With the addition of the new stream, the capacity of the refinery at Damanjodi is set to reach 3.3 mtpa.

Das informed the share holders that Nalco is pursuing with the state government for obtaining the Pottangi bauxite mines, which has mineable reserve of about 70 million tonnes.

Nalco which has diversified into the renewable energy business, expects to commission its second wind power project of 47.6 Mw at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan at an investment of Rs 283 crore in the next two months. In addition, the navaratna company plans to set up its another wind power project in the mined out area of its bauxite mines at Damanjodi for which it has already prepared a detailed feasibility report.

The company has already obtained the approval of the state government’s High Level Clearance Authority to set up a new 0.5 mtpa aluminium smelter and 1,260 MW captive power plant (CPP) at a cost of Rs 16,450 crore at Kepse in Sundergarh district.

“Site selection study and preliminary land survey for the proposed project is underway. Your company is actively pursuing for allocation of coal block for the said project, which would be necessary to make the project viable,” the CMD added.

The aluminum major has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Gujarat Alkalis and Chemicals Ltd (GACL) for setting up of a caustic soda plant. The detailed project report (DPR) is under preparation.

As on March 2013, the company has a net worth of Rs 11,933 crore with no debt in the balance sheet and a cash reserve of Rs 4,957 crore.

The company has a sound financial position for enabling it to raise resources to finance its ambitious growth projects on hand, he informed.

It has posted a higher net sales turnover of Rs 6,809 crore in 2012-13, which is 4.75 per cent growth over Rs 6,500 crore achieved in the 2011-12.

Das said, the rise in sales turnover is mostly attributed to higher production and sale of alumina. Net profit of the company, however, slumped 30.23 per cent in 2012-13 to Rs 593 crore compared to Rs 850 crore due to escalating input costs and weak aluminium prices.

Stating that aluminium demand in India is poised to grow at 7-8 per cent annually, the CMD said domestic consumption is likely to increase with rising usage of aluminium in various application areas and major drivers for this growth would be from power generation & transmission, building & construction and automobile sectors.

The aluminium metal production in India has grown by 3.2 per cent to 1.72 million tonne during 2012-13, compared to a production of 1.67 million tonne in 2011-12.

The mid or long term outlook for aluminum demand is encouraging with the back up of a pent-up demand, aluminum gaining market share in the auto sector, and the global manufacturing activity entering into an acceleration mode, Das said. In this context, analysts expect the global primary aluminum demand will grow by 6.4 per cent in 2013 and 8.5 per cent in 2014 with Chinese demand growing at eight per cent and 9.8 per cent, respectively, he added.

Nalco is hopeful that the Utkal-E coal block, with a reserve of about 67.49 million tonnes will be operational by December 2014 at an estimated cost of Rs 338 crore.