Hindalco, the country’s largest aluminium producer, will invest “at least” ₹6,000 crore towards setting up of downstream facilities in India over the next four years. The investments will be made at Mudra in Gujarat where it will set up an extrusion plant, while in the Sambalpur district in Odisha it will opt for setting up a flat rolled products unit.

According to Satish Pai, MD, Hindalco, expansion of units for downstream products takes time and will be done through a phase-wise manner.

The Aditya Birla Group company had recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat government for a Rs 2,100-crore investment at the extrusion plant in Mudra with an annual capacity of 137,000 tonnes. It already has two extrusion plants at Renukoot, Uttar Pradesh, and Alupuram, Kerala, with a combined capacity of 60,000 tonnes per annum.

In Sambalpur, Hindalco will invest close to ₹4,000 crore where its flat rolled products unit will have an annual capacity of 375,000 tonnes per annum.

“We have committed to set up downstream facilities in Gujarat and here in Odisha by investing over ₹6,000 crore over the next four years,” Pai told BusinessLine during an interview on the sidelines of the Make-in-Odisha Conclave 2018, a biennial investor conclave, organised by the State Government.

India capex and raw material concerns

According to him, the company is in the process of investing ₹1,600 crore as capex during this fiscal. While ₹700-800 crore will go towards maintenance of its facilities, the rest will be deployed for brownfield expansion of Utkal Alumina project. The ₹1,300-crore Utkal Alumina project includes ramping up of facility by 0.5 million tonne to 2 million tonnes per annum.

The company will also look at coal mine auctions for linkages that is expected to happen by the end of November.

“There is no quick fix for coal shortages. We are not getting linkages and are not importing (coal) yet. We have started putting some volumes, about 0.5 million tonne, for import at this stage. The company is waiting for coal mine auctions that are going to happen by end of November,” Pai said.

Hindalco already operates three coal mines namely Gare Palma IV/4 and IV/5 in Chhattisgarh and Kathautia in Jharkhand. The fourth at Dumri ( Jharkhand) is under development. “Apart from coal shortages, furnace oil is his hitting us in terms of input cost,” he pointed out.

According to him, the acquisition of US-based aluminium sheet-maker Aleris Corp, at a reported cost of $ 2.6 billion, is expected to be completed by April-May next year.

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