People in Thoothukudi understand that they were misled: Sterlite Copper COO

'Copper is an important metal for the economy of the country', said Sumathi Angusamy

Almost four years after the shutdown of Sterlite Copper, Thoothukudi, a unit of Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta, the company’s first woman chief, Sumathi Angusamy, believes that the closure has affected the country’s economy as India became a net importer from being a net exporter. Blaming it on a misled campaign, Angusamy, the chief operating officer of the company, talks to Shine Jacob about the global copper pricing scenario, and why copper is important for India’s renewable, rail electrification and electric vehicle roadmap. Edited excerpts:

What is the impact of the closure of your plant in Thoothukudi?

Since 2018, we have all become victims of a wilful campaign that misled large communities. In the whole thing, we as a company lost and the people of Thoot­hu­kudi have lost in terms of livelihood opportunities. In addition, downstream companies and consumers were affected, too. The loss to the exchequer was to the tune of Rs 2,900 crore. The country as a whole has lost if we look at the export numbers.

People have got an understanding that they were misled. They are meeting in large numbers with the district authorities asking that the plant should restart.

How did it affect India’s import/export equation in terms of copper?

Till 2018, the country was a net exporter of copper. Today, we are importing to the tune of around $1.2 billion. Looking at the imports of 2019-20, it has gone up to 152,000 metric tonnes, as against 35,000 metric tonnes in 2017. At the same time, exports also declined. There has been a domino effect on our imports because ofthe shutdown.

The company looked to expand as the wilful campaign stalled existing operations. We have to see who is benefiting from this campaign. Copper is an important metal for the economy of the country. If you look at the entire consumption scenario, it is almost 23 million tonnes (MT). Out of this, 2.3 MT is met by China. India as a country has been producing 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes but now, our plant’s shutdown has led to almost 50 per cent drop in volume.

India’s share of imports in China has decreased from almost 5 per cent in 2017 to less than 1 per cent in 2019. Whereas, Pakistan’s share in China’s copper imports has increased to 6 per cent from 0.1 per cent during the same period. It is very critical.

Copper prices are high globally. How do you see the demand and price rise in the Indian context?

In terms of the forecast, there are aggressive targets set by the Prime Minister for renewable energy and electric vehicles. We have aggressive plans. By 2030, India is targeting 60 per cent public transport involving electric vehicles. We would need an additional 250,000 metric tonnes of copper by 2028 to meet such targets. Indian Railways is also looking at 100 per cent electrification. All of these need copper. While China has secured its position in the market, India on the other hand has lost out after shutting a plant that was working for 25 years.

We have seen the price moving up from around $6,000 a tonne in 2018-19 to over $9,000 a tonne now. There is almost a 35 per cent jump in copper price between 2018-19 and now. This is not going to stop here. It is expected to touch $15,000 a tonne. The prices of other products linked to our industry also have gone up by at least 25 per cent since 2018-19. Sulphuric acid prices have gone up 58 per cent.

There was a lot of concern about pollution from your unit. What is your take on that and what are your expansion plans?

We have been always saying that the plant’s emission is just around 1 per cent of the total emissions found in Thoothukudi. This was recently confirmed by a source apportionment study done by Anna University. The report is saying that sulphur dioxide is not the real problem, and that particulate matter, vehicular emission and dust are contributing to the pollution. Thoothukudi also houses the highest thermal power capacity — of around 4,000 Mw — for a single city in the state.

Like any other company, we are open to expanding our operations and looking at various options, including inorganic growth, to enhance India’s copper capacity. We are also investing around Rs 100 crore in CSR activities in the region.