Vedanta Ltd has posted 17 per cent growth in its aluminium production in the April-September period of this fiscal on the back of capacity ramp ups executed at its smelting units at Jharsuguda and Balco unit at Korba (Chhattisgarh).
Aluminium production by the metals major stood at a record 5.41 lakh tonne in the period, up from 4.64 lakh tonne in the corresponding period of 2015-16.
Sequentially, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, Vedanta’s aluminium production recorded spike of 27 per cent, moving up from 2.33 lakh tonne to 2.96 lakh tonne.
“Aluminium production was a record at 541,000 tonnes in H1, 17 per cent higher y-o-y, mainly on account of ramp-up of the Jharsuguda-II and Balco-II smelters. Alumina production was five per cent higher at 567,000 tonne due to the recommencement of the second stream of the Lanjigarh refinery from April 1, 2016”, Vedanta said in a statement.
The commissioning of pots at the first line of the 1.25 million tonne per annum (mtpa) Jharsuguda-II aluminium smelter was completed at the end of July 2016. However, this line was impacted by a power outage in early August, following which 168 pots were taken out of production. The impacted pots are currently being rectified, and 10 pots have restarted in early October 2016. The commissioning of the second line of Jharsuguda-II commenced in July, with 158 pots having been commissioned till date, and the balance pots continuing to be commissioned.
The Balco-II smelter was commissioned, with all 336 pots operational in August. However, there was a technical issue in early September, due to which 167 pots went offline. These ports are being rectified and expected to resume operations in the January-March period. The rolled product facility at Balco, which was temporarily shut-down in the second quarter of this fiscal, is beginning to restart operations, and produced 5,000 tonne during the quarter.
Vedanta has targeted to produce 1.4 million tonne of alumina and 1.1 million tonne of alumina in this fiscal.
Leave a Reply