Aditya Aluminium Work To Begin By June

The Aditya Birla group will start work on its ambitious greenfield aluminium venture, the Rs 8,100-crore Aditya Aluminium project, by June this year.

The project will be a part of Hindalco Industries, the AV Birla groups blue-chip aluminium company.

The group has already shortlisted some technical collaborators and EPC contractors for the project and it expects to take a final decision on it around that time.

Speaking to Business Standard the president of Hindalco, A K Agarwala said: We have already shortlisted a few technical collaborators and EPC contractors for the project. A number of presentations have been made by global aluminium majors like Alcan, Pechiney and VAW, who are keen to participate as possible technical partners in the project. At the same time, we have also received a number of bids from Kaiser Aluminium, Bechtel, SNC, Lavlin, Engineers India and Metcon in response to the EPC tender we had floated for the project.

Agarwala said within the next few months the company would also finalise the financing pattern of the project.

However, it has been broadly decided that internal accruals would account for 35 per cent of the project cost.

The rest of it will be funded partly through long-term debt, creditors supply and rupee loans. Agarwala said a portion of the funds may also be raised through a public issue, adding that a clear picture about the funding pattern will emerge in the next few months. He remarked that the debt-equity ratio is likely to be around 0.9:1.

He added that Hindalco would be setting up an aluminium complex in Orissa with facilities for bauxite mining and alumina processing at Koraput, while a smelter with a capacity of 2.5 lakh tonne will be located near Hirakud.

A 400-km long railway line will connect the alumina unit to the smelter facility. A captive power plant of 600 mw capacity will also be set up at the complex.

Agarwala said the alumina refinery and the smelter would be set up over an area of around 2,000 acres.

The company is already in the process of acquiring land for the project and expects to complete it within the next few months.

At the same time, environment clearance and other necessary approvals are also being sought. Hindalcos turnover is likely to witness a 38 per cent increase in the fiscal year 1997-98 compared with the previous year in which it had recorded a turnover of Rs 1,157 crore.

In the first half of 1997-98, its turnover grew 36 per cent to Rs 698 crore.