AAI seeks 25-30 coal rakes per day for viable operations of the aluminium industry

On Wednesday, February 2, the Aluminium Association of India demanded from the government a supply of 25-30 coal rakes per day to ensure viable operations of the aluminium industry. The association informed the government about the availability of coal stocks for only three to four days while production disruptions have been looming across the Indian aluminium sector.

“With no relief in sight despite coal stocks running critically low and production disruptions looming across the Indian aluminium sector, the AAI has approached the Ministry of Coal, urging the immediate resumption of adequate coal rakes for the highly power-intensive Aluminium industry,” said the association in a statement.

Earlier, AAI, in its representation to the ministry, praised the combined efforts of the coal ministry and Coal India Limited in reviving domestic coal production, which helped ease the coal supply crisis for the power sector. But the initiative came at an enormous cost to the Captive Power Plants-based industry, and the worst impact was on the Indian aluminium industry, which saw reduced coal stocks abysmally low compared to the prescribed level of 15 days for the sector.

“Struggling to cope with this prolonged crisis since the second quarter of this fiscal year, the AAI has now sought the Ministry’s support to ensure adequate supplies to the CPPs by earmarking at least 25-30 coal rakes per day to ensure viable industry operations,” said AAI.

The need for captive power plants is of utmost importance, given that aluminium production is a continuous process requiring huge volumes of uninterrupted power supply, which could be met only through the in-house CPPPs set up by the aluminium smelters plants.

Any power interruption in aluminium smelting operations for more than 2 hours could lead to the freezing of molten aluminium within the smelting pots, which takes about 6 months or more to fix.

So far, the Indian aluminium industry has built Captive Power Plants of 9,400 MW capacity comprising - 34 per cent of the cumulative thermal CPPs capacity domestically) to supply continuous power for aluminium operations.