Indian copper smelters feel the pinch as China laps up key ingredient

Reduced concentrate output globally and heightened demand from Chinese smelters are to adversely affect the supply of feedstock for Indian smelters

The close to 1-million tonne (mt) Indian copper industry has three constituents, of which the biggest Hindalco has a 500,000-tonne smelter in Gujarat’s port city of Bharuch. Vedanta’s 400,000-tonne unit at Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu has remained inoperative since March 2018 — first for plant maintenance and then the local government ordering its closure for causing damage to the environment. Of the three, the 76.05 per cent government-owned Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) is alone vertically integrated from mining of ore to smelting to making value added continuous cast (CC) rods.

As Hindalco and Vedanta do not own mines in the country,