Sops by Nalco, Odisha govt to make aluminium park globally competitive

A string of incentives announced by National Aluminium Company (Nalco) and the Odisha government promises to make the downstream aluminium park at Angul a globally competitive cluster.

The aluminium park is being developed jointly by Nalco and state owned Odisha Industrial infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco). The park, spread over 240 acres is located close to Nalco’s aluminium smelting unit at Angul.

The park is modelled on Sohar Aluminium’s cluster in Oman where molten aluminium is supplied to the downstream units. This saves on logistics costs and also ensures continuous raw material supplies.

In India, this is the first of its kind project in the country where molten aluminium would be sourced directly to feed the downstream units at the park. But, both Nalco and Idco- the equity holders in the aluminium park have gone beyond the commitment of raw material supply.

“Nalco is providing a pricing discount of Rs 5000 per tonne on aluminium ingots and Rs 4000 a tonne on molten metal. We are also offering our brand name to the units. 
 

Given the array of incentives available to the downstream units at the aluminium park, we believe they can save upto Rs 10,000 per tonne. This will make the Angul aluminium park a globally competitive model”, said Nalco’s chairman T K Chand, also the president at Aluminium Association of India (AAI).

Chand said, 240 acres land has been acquired for the aluminium park and if needed, an additional 100 acres can be acquired.

Since land cost was deterring many potential investors, Idco has decided to slash it. The initial land cost for investors was Rs 60 lakh but Idco is offering a price of Rs 50 lakh per acre, with the offer valid till June 2018.

Over the past five years, the state has attracted investments worth Rs 893 crore including proposals by Bahrain based Midal Cables and Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) subsidiary Grid Conductors Ltd. Four out of the five proposals drawn are for the aluminium park developed jointly by Nalco and state government owned Idco at Angul.

The park has bagged one overseas investment from Bahrain-based Midal Cables. The company has proposed a rod and wire conductor unit at the park at an investment of Rs 358.90 crore with an annual capacity of 60,000 tonnes per annum. Grid Conductors Ltd, a subsidiary of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL), has proposed to establish an aluminium and aluminium alloy conductor unit in Odisha, committing an investment of Rs 127.35 crore.

There is a proposal by Gupta Power Infrastructure Ltd to set up a facility for HT (high tension) cables within the aluminium park at a cost of Rs 192.07 crore. Beyond the aluminium park, Deepak Cables (India) Ltd has sought to put up an integrated aluminium downstream project at Dulampur in Bargarh district, investing Rs 155 crore.

With an investment of Rs 180 crore on infrastructure of the project, the aluminium park would reflect a complete industrial state-of-the-art entity, fully equipped with logistics infrastructure facility, an exclusive training centre, a park administration and a display & trade services facility. The park would also contain an Aluminium Product Evaluation Centre (APEC) furnished with a full-fledged tool room, testing, simulation and evaluation facilities, processing hall and prototype development facility to foster innovation and deliver excellence in terms of quality.