Vedanta's aluminium production up 23% in Apr-Dec 2016

It also improved its alumina output, due to re-commencement of 2nd stream operations at Lanjigarh

Ramp up of the second smelters at Jharsuguda and the Balco unit at Korba (Chhattisgarh) helped Vedanta post 23 per cent growth year-on-year (y-o-y) in aluminium production in the April-December period.

Vedanta's aluminium production in the period under review was a record 0.86 million tonne (mt) as the company took up a disciplined ramp up of the additional pots at these two smelters.

The first line of the 1.25 mtpa Jharsuguda-II smelter was impacted by a transformer failure incident earlier this month. Rectification work is in process and 80 pots of the 336 pots are currently operational. The second line is nearing full ramp up with 329 pots of the 336 pots commissioned. The balance pots of the line will be commissioned shortly, Vedanta said in its production release.

Abhijit Pati, chief executive officer (aluminium business) of Vedanta Ltd did not respond to phone calls for a comment.

Vedanta's Balco-II smelter was also impacted by a pot failure incident in the July-September quarter. Presently, 200 out of the 336 pots are operational and full ramp-up is expected to be achieved by the end of this fiscal.

The rolled product facility at Balco, which was temporarily shut-down last year, successfully commenced its operations in the Q2 of this fiscal following optimisation of its cost structure, and produced 6,100 tonne during the October-December quarter.

Vedanta also improved upon its alumina output, riding on re-commencement of its second stream operations at Lanjigarh (Odisha). Alumina production during April-December was up 18 per cent while it surged 50 per cent in the Q3 alone. The two streams of the Lanjigarh refinery operated during the quarter and produced 328,000 tonne in Q3. The refinery currently has a de-bottlenecked capacity of 1.7 - 2.0 mt per annum.

In aluminium, Vedanta is looking at a production target of 1.1 mtpa by the close of this financial year, excluding trial run production.

Vedanta has got an order from the state power regulator- Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) to use up to 1800 Mw power from group company owned 2400 Mw power station at Bhurkamunda close to the Jharsuguda smelting facility. The company has secured coal linkage of six mtpa through auctions to meet the requirement of its captive power plants. Supply from these coal linkages has commenced from November 2016.