04 JUNE 2013Moneycontrol.com
NALCO awaits rise in global prices to start full operations
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
1 min read
NALCO may operate its sole smelter at 75 percent capacity until global prices of the metal recover or availability of cheap domestic coal increases, a company director said on Friday.
The 460,000 tonne per annum capacity plant at Angul in eastern part of Odisha has been operating at reduced capacity since May 12 after its coal supplier Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd shut a mine following an accident on April 21.
The smelter has been receiving 12,000 tonnes of coal daily on an average since April 24, about three-fourths of its requirement, said S.S. Mohapatra, production director at NALCO.
NALCO does not want to operate the plant on expensive imported coal at a time when global aluminium prices at the London Metal Exchange are at their lowest level in three years, at about USD 1,800 a tonne, he said.
"We would have purchased imported expensive coal to resume full production but if we do that we would incur a loss of USD 353 for every tonne of aluminium," he pointed out.
The 460,000 tonne per annum capacity plant at Angul in eastern part of Odisha has been operating at reduced capacity since May 12 after its coal supplier Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd shut a mine following an accident on April 21.
The smelter has been receiving 12,000 tonnes of coal daily on an average since April 24, about three-fourths of its requirement, said S.S. Mohapatra, production director at NALCO.
NALCO does not want to operate the plant on expensive imported coal at a time when global aluminium prices at the London Metal Exchange are at their lowest level in three years, at about USD 1,800 a tonne, he said.
"We would have purchased imported expensive coal to resume full production but if we do that we would incur a loss of USD 353 for every tonne of aluminium," he pointed out.
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