Vedanta envisions Indian aluminium production to reach 5 million tonnes in the next 5-6 years

On 18^th November 2021, Deeptaman Mukherjee, the Director of Commodities for Vedanta’s Aluminium Business stated that annual aluminium production in India could attain five million tonnes in the next five to six years, which is an increase of around 25% from current levels.

Mukherjee said based on the ongoing projects that companies are working on in India: “The 4 million tonnes of metal production today potentially could increase to five million tonnes in about five to six years.”

During a panel discussion at the A-Z China virtual aluminium conference, he added: “If there is a new market participant that comes in, possibly that five million tonnes could increase to about 5.5-6 million tonnes of aluminium production.”

However, according to an International data analytics and research firm, India will be the ‘stand-out growth market’ for aluminium consumption in the upcoming years as it pursues construction projects to resolve an infrastructure deficit. It also anticipates usage more than tripling to 9.5 million tonnes by 2030 from 2.6 million tonnes in 2021.

“Vedanta's Lanjigarh alumina refinery expansion in the eastern state of Odisha, coupled with ramp-ups elsewhere, will mean India will have enough of the raw material to feed the domestic aluminium smelting industry”, Mukherjee said.

Vedanta is augmenting the production capacity of alumina at Lanjigarh to five million tonnes of from two million tonnes at a cost of about INR 4,681 crore.

“The output increase was expected to be achieved in 12-18 months and would reduce Vedanta's reliance on alumina imports. The company produced 1.9 million tonnes of aluminium in 2020”, Mukherjee concluded by saying.