After about two years of partial closure and capacity cut, Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) has resumed its operations stage by stage in all its facilities. Now all the operations are running in full swing and Balco aims to produce nearly six lakh tonnes of Aluminium per annum in Chhattisgarh.
In August last year, the sheet rolling shop (SRS) at the Korba facility was shut down as it was running at loss due to the slowdown in commodity price especially the falling LME aluminium price and cheap import from China flooding the market. They restarted the operation in the first week of August after the required maintenance work and minor modernization. This has brought a relief to a large number of workers in the plant and has brought the metal major back in rolling products business that almost came into a halt about a year ago.
Commenting on the reopening, Balco CEO Ramesh Nair said to TOI, "All units --The smelter, Power Project, Sheet Rolling shop and all other units are now fully operational."
Started as a Public Sector undertaking in 1965, Balco Vedanta Group took over the management control of the company in 2001 after the centre dis-invested 51 per cent equity. Government of India still holds 49 per cent stake in the company.
If all the units of Balco starts operating at full capacity, Balco will be in a position to produce nearly six lakh tonnes of Aluminium annually. Its power production capacity has also reached 2010 MW giving it an edge.
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