India’s alumina imports to decline by 4% in CY2020 in line with its measures to minimise overseas dependence

According to the global export-import data, India’s alumina imports in CY2020 are estimated to stand at 2.27 million tonnes, down by 4.22 per cent from 2.37 million tonnes (approx.) in 2019. In 2018, India had imported 2.69 million tonnes, meaning the country’s alumina imports in 2019 stood down by 11.90 per cent from the previous year.

The above data indicate that India’s alumina imports this year are estimated to drop from the preceding year but at a lower rate.

In tandem with the decline in India’s total alumina imports, the country’s imports from Australia are also expected to stand lower at 682,436 tonnes compared to 1.10 million tonnes in 2019. This means India’s alumina imports from Australia in 2020 are likely to decline sharply by 99 per cent year-on-year. In 2018, India’s alumina imports from Australia were 1.35 million tonnes, meaning the imports in 2019 fell by 19 per cent from the year earlier.

India’s year-on-year alumina imports downfall is in line with its constant strive to trim down dependency on overseas alumina and increase domestic reliant. Since 2017, New Delhi metals and mining giant Vedanta Limited aimed at increasing its alumina capacity at domestic refineries over the next few years, and it successfully did in FY2020. In March this year, the company announced that it was expecting its alumina production at Lanjigarh refinery ramped up to 1.8 million tonnes during 2019-20 from 1.5 million tonnes in the previous year.

India is also currently mulling measures to reduce aluminium imports amid a spike in shipments of the metal from China. Ministry of Mines has constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) to analyse import curbs in aluminium and also propping up the domestic smelters of the metal to substitute overseas supply.

In FY20, India's aluminium capacity stood at 4.1 Million tonnes (MT) as against 2.2 MT of consumption.