Nalco staff oppose alumina sale to Vedanta

Employees of Nalco here have threatened to launch protests against the reported move of the company to sell alumina to Vedanta Aluminium Limited (VAL). On Friday, a few employees under Nalco Sramik Congress Union organized a demonstration in front of the company's captive power plant. A day before, the Aluminium Mazdoor Sangha (AMS), had held demonstration in front of the smelter plant, while another demonstration has been planned on May 3 in front of Nalco's corporate office in Bhubaneswar.

Nalco produces 16.5 lakh metric tonne alumina at its Damanjodi plant. Of the total output, its Angul smelter plant gets about 8.18 lakh metric tonne annually, while the rest is exported through London Metal Exchange (LME). The Nalco authorities came under suspicion after its August 26, 2011 tender in which the company sought international bidders to sell nearly 300,000 tonnes of alumina.

As the product was meant for exports, the tender barred any domestic entity to participate. This was followed by the VAL chief executive director, Pramod Suri, writing a letter to the secretary, ministry of mines, seeking permission to participate in the bidding. The VAL's smelter plant at Jharsuguda is facing problems in sourcing enough alumina to run it.

Nalco employees, however, smell a rat in the whole move. Paresh Jena, general secretary of Nalco Sramik Congress Union (NSCU) alleged, "If the Nalco management sells alumina to Vedanta or to any domestic firm, the company will not only lose precious foreign exchange leading to fall in its profit, it would also pave the way for Nalco's privatization. We will not allow this to happen".

"VAL is a competitor for us. The deal would be unfair and not in the interest of Nalco. Angul's Nalco smelter plant consumes 2,200 metric tonne of alumina daily for its 840 pots and it would require 2600 metric tonne daily to run its 940 pots everyday," the NSCU vice-president Gobinda Chandra Mishra said. Contacted, the chairman-cum-managing director (CMD), Nalco was unavailable for comment. Most of the Nalco officers were tight-lipped. A senior official, however, maintained no final decision has been taken for selling alumina to VAL.