CII survey ranks Vedanta among top 10 sustainable firms

Mining conglomerate Vedanta today said a CII survey has ranked the company among the top 10 sustainable companies in India.
"Vedanta Ltd...Has been given the 'Sustainable Plus Platinum label' for FY 2015 by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)," the company said in a statement.
Hindustan Zinc, a subsidiary of Vedanta Ltd too was conferred with the 'Sustainable Plus Platinum label' for FY 2015, the statement added.
"Sustainable development agenda is at the core of Vedanta's strategic priorities. As an organisation, our commitment towards 'Social License to Operate' goes beyond the regulatory compliance and we are focused on the sustainable development, inclusive growth and greater value creation for all our internal and external stakeholders," Vedanta CEO Tom Albanese said in the statement.

On copper production, Vedanta said the Tuticorin smelter
produced 102,000 tonnes of cathodes during the third quarter of ongoing fiscal, up 15 per cent from the same quarter of previous fiscal.

"During Q3 FY2016, volumes were lower on account of flooding in the state and unplanned shutdowns," it said, adding that "the 160 mw power plant at Tuticorin operated at a lower plant load factor (PLF) of 56 per cent during Q3 FY2017 (PLF of 52 per cent in Q3 FY2016, 48 per cent during Q2 FY2017)."
PLF was lower due to lower off-take by the Telangana State Electricity Board (TSEB).

"However, as per our offtake agreement with TSEB, we are entitled to compensation at the rate 20 per cent of the contracted rate, for off-take below 85 per cent of the contracted quantity," it said.
Vedanta said further that the first line of the 1.25 mtpa Jharsuguda-II smelter was impacted by a transformer failure incident earlier this month.
"Rectification work is in process and 80 pots of the 336 pots are currently operational. The second line is nearing full ramp up with 329 pots of the 336 pots commissioned. The balance pots of the line will be commissioned shortly. The ramp up of the third line of the smelter has commenced in end December 2016," Vedanta said.

The 325 kilo tonne (kt) BALCO-II smelter had been impacted by a pot failure incident in Q2 FY'2017.
"200 pots of the 336 pots are currently operational and full ramp-up of the smelter is expected by the end of Q4 FY2017," Vedanta said.
The rolled product facility at BALCO, which was temporarily shut-down last year, successfully commenced its operations in the second quarter of 2016-17 following optimisation of its cost structure, and produced 6,100 tonnes during the quarter.
During the third quarter, the company said that total power sales were higher y-o-y due to the commissioning of additional power units at TSPL and BALCO over the last one year.