Nalco draws up growth plans for overseas and India

Bhubaneswar: National Aluminium Company (Nalco) has drawn ambitious growth plans worth Rs 40,000 crore involving projects abroad and within the country in a bid to emerge as a global giant.

'In order to emerge as a company of global repute, we have drawn ambitious growth plans worth Rs 40,000 crore for the next five years. These include smelter and power projects in Indonesia and Iran,' Nalco chairman R C Pradhan said.

In addition, the company is planning brownfield and greenfield projects within the country, he said.

Nalco achieved 104.48 per cent capacity utilisation in its smelter at Angul in 2007-08 with a production of 360,457 tonne of aluminium cast metal against 358,734 tonne in previous year.

Similarly, alumina refinery at Damanjodi recorded 100.04 per cent capacity utilisation with a production of 15,75,500 tonne against 14,75,200 tonne in previous year, he said.

However, its 960 Mw captive power plant near the smelter unit recorded a lower power generation of 5609 million units against 5968 million units in the previous year mainly due to coal shortage, the company chairman said.

On foreign projects, Pradhan said Nalco has signed an MoU with Indonesia to set up a five lakh tonne smelter and a 1250 Mw captive power plant and the company plans to invest around Rs 14,000 crore in the greenfield project.

Similarly, a 3.30 lakh tonne smelter has been planned in two phases in Iran as a joint venture at a cost of about Rs 8,000, he said adding that both the projects are likely to take off soon.