National Aluminium Company (Nalco), the leading producer of alumina and aluminium in the country, is mulling to undertake its third phase expansion envisaging an investment of Rs 6,000 crore.
The third phase expansion intends to ramp up the capacity of the company’s bauxite mining from 63 lakh tonnes to 90 lakh tonnes, alumina output from 21 lakh tonnes to 30 lakh tonnes and aluminium production from 4.6 lakh tonnes to 7.5 lakh tonnes, said AK Srivastava, chairman cum managing director of the company.
In tune with this, the captive power generation capacity is expected to go up by about 660 Mw from 1200 Mw now.
The company’s ongoing Rs 4200 crore second phase expansion programme is almost complete except for delay in commissioning of the work in its alumina refinery and bauxite mining complex at Damanjodi in Koraput district.
The complex was raided by Naxalites in April last year, leading to death of 10 Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and consequent delay in implementation of the expansion work.
Hence, the completion of the expansion of the refinery and bauxite mining complex, which was scheduled in June, this year, has been pushed back to January, next year.
Meanwhile, the navratna aluminium company has scaled a new high in production of bauxite, alumina and aluminium in 2009-10.
Despite the Maoist attack on the company's bauxite mines at Damanjodi, Nalco registered its highest ever bauxite production of 48.79 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, surpassing the previous best of 48.54 lakh tonnes clocked in 2005-06, achieving a capacity utlization of 101.64 per cent. The company posted a 3.8 per cent growth over its bauxite output of 47 lakh tonnes in 2008-09.
Similarly, the company's output of alumina hydrate at its alumina refinery at Damajodi stood at 15.92 lakh tonnes in 2009-10, recording a capacity utilization of 101.05 per cent and getting past the previous best production figure of 15.90 lakh tonnes in 2005-06.
Nalco's aluminium production at 4.31 lakh tonnes in 2009-10 marked a 19.4 per cent growth over 3.61 lakh tonnes achieved in 2008-09.
Besides, Nalco achieved the highest-ever domestic metal sale of 2.89 lakh tonnes, surpassing the previous high of 2.71 lakh tonnes in 2008-09, with an increase of 6.5 per cent.
The company also achieved the highest-ever metal export of 1.47 lakh tonnes against the previous year’s export of 82,314 tonnes, recording a growth of 78.5 per cent and surpassing the previous best of 1.33 lakh tonnes in 2004-05.
Similarly, despite acute coal shortage and severe power fluctuations, Nalco’s captive power plant, which feeds to the company's smelter plant at Angul, achieved the highest-ever power generation of 6295 million units. This marked a growth of 13.6 per cent over 5541 million units achieved in 2008-09.
