Nalco, Asia's largest integrated aluminium producer, will complete capacity expansion and fully commission its 5.25 lakh tonnes a year refinery at Damanjodi in Orissa's Koraput district in the next three weeks.

It will hold an extraordinary general meeting this week to move ahead with a proposed capital-restructuring plan.

Mr B.L. Bagra, Director (Finance), who got the additional charge of Chairman and Managing Director of Nalco on Saturday, told Business Line that the commissioning will take place in the third week of March, taking the total capacity to 21 lakh tonnes a year.

“Work on the last leg of the refinery's sixth stream is expected to be over in the next fortnight, and the commissioning will follow within a week from then.” He, however, said in the first two months after commissioning, the capacity utilisation will be around 80 per cent. “In June, cent per capacity utilisation is slated to be achieved.”

Phase II expansion over

By 2011-12, Nalco will be utilising 90 per cent of the expanded capacity and 100 per cent of the old capacity, Mr Bagra explained.

The commissioning has missed several deadlines in the past two years, the last being in January this year. In 2009-10, Nalco produced 15.9 lt of alumina.

Fourteen people, including four extremists, were killed in a gun battle at Nalco's bauxite mine at Panchpatmali, 400 km off Damanjodi in April 2009, which caused Nalco's contractors and labourers to flee the project area.

The phase-II expansion project, including 240 MW of power generating capacity and additional smelting capacity of 1.15 lakh tonnes a year, in Angul, Orissa will be over with the commissioning of the refinery.

Nalco commissioned its second 120 MW power unit in Angul in August 2010. This, Mr Bagra said, produced 7-8 per cent more captive power, and reduced its cost for the current fiscal.

A growth in sales turnover and net profit in the third quarter of the present fiscal, owing to improved capacity utilisation, input-cost control and better demand, was recorded by the public-sector unit. But an adverse exchange rate and dearer power and fuel trimmed the bottom-line growth. The fourth quarter so far has also seen pressure on these two counts, the official said.

Nalco's capital-restructuring proposal involves a stock-split — from Rs 10 a share to Rs 5 each, and a 1:1 bonus-share issue. The restructuring will see Nalco's Rs 644.31 crore current paid-up capital increase to Rs 1,288.62 crore.

The meeting would also pave the way for an employee stock options scheme by an amendment in the article of association.

“The scheme may be operationalised in the second quarter of 2011-12,” Mr Bagra said.

The new CMD, who has been steering Nalco's first overseas smelter project worth $3.2 billion, said the evaluation of the commercial bids for coal supply and logistic support in Indonesia, will be over by March-end.

Mr Bagra has been Director (Finance) of Nalco since February 2007.

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