India's second largest aluminium producer, National Aluminium Co (Nalco) may be forced to close down its alumina refinery in Orissa within a few days due to shortage of coal, a senior company official today said.
"Coal is a major raw material required to generate steam for running the refinery. As we are continuously facing coal shortages due to inadequate supply from Coal India, we may be forced to close down the alumina refinery in a few days from now," a company spokesperson told PTI from Bhuwaneshwar.
He said the daily output at the Damanjodi refinery has more than halved to about 2,000 tonne in the last few days. The Nalco refinery uses about 2,500 tonne of coal everyday to produce 4,500 tonne of alumina.
It is not for the first time that Nalco has been forced to cut down production due to coal shortages. In mid-June, the company's daily aluminium production, which hovers around 900 tonne, had dipped by about 30 per cent due to lowering of its power plant's output following disruption in coal supplies.
Nalco Chairman C R Pradhan had at that point of time said the truckers strike in Mahanadi Coalfields had halted coal transportation from Talcher to Angul district, where the company's 960 Mw power plant is located.
Nalco needs about 14,000 tonne of coal per day to run its aluminum smelter and alumina refinery at full capacity. The company has a long-term contract for supply of 4.87 million tonne of coal from Mahanadi Coalfields.
Nalco produces 3.5 lakh tonne of aluminum annually from its Orissa plant and is developing a coal mine with 2 million tons of estimated reserves to secure fuel supplies. It is also in the process of importing about 1 lakh tonne of coal within two months to meet its requirement.