Industry experts discuss ways to boost the Indian aluminium industry in IBAAS

Vedanta Group's shutting down its Lanjigarh alumina refinery in Odisha on Wednesday due to non-availability of bauxite is emblematic of the problems dogging the entire aluminium sector. The situation is no different with other players and they too are hard-pressed for lining up the bauxite supply through their in-house mines. In fact, next year is expected to be even tougher for the sector.

The Vedanta closure announcement came even as experts were debating ways to boost the aluminium industry during a three-day international symposium on 'Bauxite, alumina and aluminium industry of Asia' organized by the International Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium Society (IBAAS) in association with Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC) in city from Monday.

During the symposium, experts from the industry blame government for this situation as it is unable to remove the roadblocks to mining bauxite in the form of environmental clearance, Naxalism and protection of tribal rights. As against nine announcements of capacity additions made during the last one decade- seven on east coast and two on west- only a handful have started work on building the project, leave aside begin operations. These include Anark Aluminium Limited (AAL) in Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Vedanta Aluminium Ltd.