Vedanta aluminium production up 44% YoY in Q1 FY2018, full year target set at 1.6 million tonnes

<p>Vedanta Resources releases production report across all its business for the First Quarter ended 30 June 2017. Aluminium production remains flat quarter on quarter due to previously announced power outage at Jharsuguda-I. &nbsp;The company reports an exit production run-rate of 1.4mtpa. Production ramp up continues at Jharsuguda.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img style="vertical-align: middle;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/vedanta%20Q1.jpg" alt="News" width="595" height="298" /></p> <p><em>* Jharsuguda 1,800MW and Balco 270 MW power plants have been moved from the Power to the Aluminium segment from 1^st April 2016.&nbsp;</em></p> <p>The alumina production in the Lanjigarh refinery increased 10% YoY to 303,000 tonnes in Q1 FY2018, but drops 3% QoQ.</p> <p>Vedanta reported 352,000 tonnes aluminium production in Q1, up 44% YoY attributed to the ramp ups at the Jharsuguda-II and BALCO-II smelters. &nbsp;This quarter completed the ramp up of BALCO-II smelter and capitalised the same. Quarter on quarter, aluminium production remained flat due to lower production from the Jharsuguda-I smelter that faced a pot outage in early April 2017.</p> <p>At Jharsuguda-I, 35 out of the total 228 pots that were affected in the April power outage, have been brought back to operation. The company expects the balance pots to be back in operation by Q3 FY2018.</p> <p>Vedanta expects to produce 1.5 to 1.6 million tonnes of aluminium (excluding trial run production) for FY2018.</p> <p>{googleAdsense}</p> <p>Stabilised production (i.e. production excluding trial run) was 320,000 tonnes in Q1 FY2018. Domestic coal linkage helped the company in securing coal requirements at a competitive price. The aluminium segment managed with minimum coal import. The company received 1.8 mn tonnes of coal from the total coal linkage of 6mtpa, secured for the captive power plants at BALCO and Jharsuguda. In addition to this, the company secured further coal linkages of 2 mtpa in July.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>