NALCO to invest Rs 57,903 cr on expansion

New Delhi: Public firm aluminium producer NALCO plans to invest Rs 57,903 crore by 2020 on expansion, including the setting up of two large aluminium smelters in India and abroad. The Navratna firm would invest Rs 16,500 crore in Indonesia for setting up a 5 million tonnes (MT) smelter, with 1,250 MW power plant, a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal and Steel said.[caption id="" align=“alignnone” width=“380” caption=“NALCO on investment course. Ilya Naymushin/Reuters”][/caption] It added the other smelter of the same size would be built in western Orissa in two phases, with 1,260 MW power plant at an estimated investment of Rs 16,345 crore. Besides, NALCO has plans to construct a new alumina refinery of 1.4 MT in Andhra Pradesh and 1,000-MW power project as independent power producer. Both the projects would require an investment of Rs 10,600 crore, the report said, adding that rest of the amount would be spent on existing projects. Company officials could not be reached for comments on NALCO’s mega expansion plans. In its vision document 2020, the company had said it is targeting a turnover of Rs 25,000 crore by then, with an annual aluminium production capacity of 1.7 million tonnes. The company had also said that it will create three wholly-owned subsidiaries—NALCO Metals, NALCO Power and NALCO International—for entering other non-ferrous metals and energy businesses. The Orissa-based company, with an alumina refinery capacity of 2.1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and an aluminium smelter of 4.6 MTPA, has recently completed its second phase of expansion at an investment of Rs 4,402 crore. Besides, it also has Bauxite mining capacity of 6.3 MT and generates 1,200 MW captive power. PTI