ASMA completes a successful seminar on CBAM and ways to tackle it by the Indian aluminium industry

Aluminium Secondary Manufacturers Association (ASMA) conducted a seminar on 'Global Trade, Sustainability and Competitiveness of Indian Downstream Aluminium Industry in presence of CBAM' on May 17, 2023, at India International Centre, New Delhi. The seminar was about introspecting the burning issue of CBAM and analysing the Government's initiatives and strategy to tackle the matter, ensuring the industry's growth. 

In addition, there was also a session on 'Raw Material Price Risk and Hedging Mechanisms' in the seminar to gain varied knowledge from industry professionals.

The key speakers in the seminar were Dr Anchal Arora, faculty at IIFT, Delhi; Shri Anial Agarwal, patron of ASMA; Shri Ankur Aggarwal, Vice President of ASMA; and Mr Chittaranjan Rege, head of MCX. Unfortunately, Shri Ishtiyaque Ahmed, senior adviser to Industry Policy and Foreign Investment, Niti Aayog, New Delhi, could not attend the event due to an urgent call from PMO.

Dr Arora, who presented the theme paper, said the Indian aluminium downstream sector holds the lion's share in terms of production and employment in the Indian aluminium industry. So, it is of utmost importance to keep the Indian downstream products prices competitive in the global market, and in it, unwrought aluminium prices play a significant role. She added Indian downstream industry is facing a primary aluminium price surge on the pretext of import parity and therefore ending up overspending for producing value-added goods. 

She also mentioned in the presentation her analysis of six different scenarios to assess possible impacts of CBAM, which can be characterised by two core design elements i.e. CO2 intensity and CO2 price at the border. She also noted that reducing the usage of fossil fuel for aluminium production would be important to curb carbon emission in India.

According to Dr Arora, using an inert anode for electrolysis instead of electrical or green hydrogen would be some of the valid options to decarbonise the domestic aluminium industry. But since they involve high capital costs and vast infrastructure and can only be viable in the long term, India needs to explore some short-term ways to decarbonise.   

The seminar started with the welcome address of Mr Ankur Agarwal, Vice President of ASMA, who mentioned the association's relentless hard work for the development of the member industry. He also said the efforts are to ensure the development of the downstream aluminium industry and its contribution towards enhancing the country's economy.

 Shri Anil Agarwal, patron of ASMA, shared his opinion in the presentation that in the form of controlling carbon emission by imposing CBAM on aluminium imports, the European Union is trying to enforce a trade barrier to safeguard the domestic industry.