India exports about 1.5 million tons of alumina per year; China & UAE top the importer list

India has an installed alumina capacity of 6.5.million tons, out of which plant capacity of 6.2 million tons reported alumina production in 2015. The reported production of alumina stands at 4 million tons in 2014-15 which increased by about 6% YOY. NALCO continues to be the leading producer of alumina in India accounting for about 45% of the total production.  The company produces 2 - 2.1 million tons of alumina annually.  According to the latest reported volume, exports of alumina in India stand at about 1.5 million tonnes in 2014-15.

Mr Tapan Kumar Chand, CMD, Nalco recently said in an interview that the company is pinning a lot of hope on its Alumina business for the coming quarters. In the 4th quarter of the current financial year, it plans to sell around 4 lakh tonnes (4,00,000 tonnes) of alumina, which will bring their total alumina sale per year to about 1.6 million ton. A very small portion of this is sold to domestic companies and the rest of it is exported internationally.

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As shown by the data, India exported about 1.4 million tons of alumina in 2015. In 2016, the country is estimated to export about 1.5 million tons of alumina. Considering the data for the last two year, for the first ten months of 2017, India is estimated to export 1.2 million tons of alumina.

The alumina export delivered USD 473 million revenue to the exporters in 2015. In 2016, the import generated a revenue realization of USD 397million. For the first ten months of 2017, revenue realization from alumina export is estimated to stand at USD 353 million.

Nalco is the top alumina exporter in India.  Exports are mainly driven by China (41%), UAE (39%), Iran (8%) Egypt (6%). According to latest statistics, China imports about 3,46,530 tons of alumina from India and UAE imports about 4,11,371 tons. Iran imports about 2,37,360 tons and Egypt imports about 2,40,336 tons of alumina from India.

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It is noteworthy that recently, India's two leading aluminium producers, National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO) and Vedanta are in discussion to sort out alumina sourcing related issues that the latter has been facing since long. The central government has asked the Navaratna PSU to consider selling alumina to Vedanta.  If this materializes, Nalco may cut down on export to sell a part of its alumina to Vedanta.