05 SEPTEMBER 2011China Aluminium Network
Nalco’s Iran power project on backburner as lenders wary
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
2 min read
State-run giant National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has virtually shelved its plans to set up a 3,00,000 tonne smelter and a power plant in Iran due to financial crunch and the reluctance of lenders in providing money due to the country’s “geo-political situation.”
The project was announced in 2007 in which Nalco had planned to ferry bauxite to the proposed project ostensibly from the Indian mines and convert them into aluminium. Accordingly, it had inked an agreement with Iran’s Kerman Development Organisation, but an agreement to form a joint venture hasn’t been floated yet. The original envisaged cost of the project was around Rs 8,000 crore, which now understandably stands at over Rs 10,000 crore.
When a Parliamentary Standing Committee recently asked the union mines ministry to comment on the fate of the navratna company’s Iranian venture, the ministry conveyed the PSU’s unwillingness to proceed on it saying it had both financial and geo-political constraints.
Of its four international projects announced, only the Indonesian smelter is close to getting started.
Nalco is likely to finalise its coal partner soon. It has planned to set up a 5,00,000 tonne aluminium smelter and a 1,250-Mw power plant at an expenditure of Rs 16,500 crore.
The project was announced in 2007 in which Nalco had planned to ferry bauxite to the proposed project ostensibly from the Indian mines and convert them into aluminium. Accordingly, it had inked an agreement with Iran’s Kerman Development Organisation, but an agreement to form a joint venture hasn’t been floated yet. The original envisaged cost of the project was around Rs 8,000 crore, which now understandably stands at over Rs 10,000 crore.
When a Parliamentary Standing Committee recently asked the union mines ministry to comment on the fate of the navratna company’s Iranian venture, the ministry conveyed the PSU’s unwillingness to proceed on it saying it had both financial and geo-political constraints.
Of its four international projects announced, only the Indonesian smelter is close to getting started.
Nalco is likely to finalise its coal partner soon. It has planned to set up a 5,00,000 tonne aluminium smelter and a 1,250-Mw power plant at an expenditure of Rs 16,500 crore.
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