Hindalco plans big investment on its Utkal alumina refinery

<p>Aditya Birla&nbsp;Group owned&nbsp;Hindalco Industries has planned big investment worth INR 500-700 crore on de-bottlenecking its Utkal alumina refinery project in Odisha's Rayagada district. The company has now applied for clearance up to 2.25 mtpa from 1.5 mtpa for its Utkal alumina refinery.</p> <p><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/utkal_alumina.jpg" alt="news" width="517" height="226" /></p> <p>During the recent conference call after its 3^rd quarter results, Satish Pai, managing director of Hindalco said, &ldquo;...I think in 2017-18 we would have got the complete engineering and the de-bottlenecking sorted out.&rdquo;</p> <p>&ldquo; So, really it is a question of whether you put in a completely new train or just de-bottlenecking and to be clear, our preference right now is to de-bottleneck and that is why we have applied for clearances to go up to about 2.25 (million tonne) as a first range.&rdquo;</p> <p>The de-bottlenecking on alumina refinery is projected to be complete in one and half year. The company's captive Baphlimali&nbsp;bauxite mines&nbsp;supplies reserves to the alumina refinery. The ample amount of reserves can fed the refinery for 25 years once the production started.</p> <p>{googleAdsense}</p> <p>Utkal Alumina International Ltd has increased its production eight per cent year-on-year to reach 393,000 tonne in the December quarter.</p> <p>The refinery is producing at its installed capacity and has secured its place as one of the lowest cost refineries of the world. Utkal&rsquo;s EBITDA stands at INR 140 crore during the December quarter.</p> <p>Pai said: "Utkal today is a world class asset and our captive alumina bagged by captive&nbsp;bauxite is proving to be a great strength. We believe that operational improvements ensure that better performance will be sustained in the coming quarters."</p>