Nalco's INR 30,000 cr investment plans include one million tonne alumina refinery in Odisha

Aluminium major National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) on Tuesday said it would invest INR 30,000 crore in Odisha over next few years to expand production capacity and create more job opportunities in the state. The announcement comes at a time when global metal market is witnessing a slowdown with sharp fall in prices while the domestic aluminium industry is witnessing erosion of margins in wake of an onslaught of cheap imports.

Nalco’s investment plan encompasses expansion - both brownfield and greenfield, diversification into energy and non-ferrous metal sectors, backward integration, merger and acquisition.

Out of the proposed investment, about INR 6000 crore will go towards capacity expansion that will involve setting up a one million tonne (mt) alumina refinery at Damanjodi in the state. This is the first major expansion in the state run aluminium company in step with the Modi government's Make in India campaign.

Nalco is also looking at diversifying into renewable energy with plans to set up a 100mw wind power project with an investment of about INR 700 crore. There is also an investment plan of about INR 6000 crore for setting up an alumina refinery in Gujarat while about INR 16,000 crore would go towards a 0.5 million tonne smelter plant and a 1260mw power plant in Odisha.

Nalco investment plan comes at a time when capacity utilisation by the domestic industry has fallen to 50 per cent with production touching just 2 mt in financial year 2014-15 though 4.1 mt of installed capacity exists.