THE JOURNAL OF ALUMINIUM PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING

TODAY
March 2002

Strategic fit
for US
industry
Innovations
boost rolling
sector
Partnership
success in
metal quality
Secondary
technology
shows
promise

National Profile

The Indian aluminium

industry in prospect
With the introduction of Economic Reforms in the early 1990s, industries in India have
seen the light of gradual integration with global players in international markets. The
reform process has in part been implemented and as Uptal Das* explains, although the
progress is slow, however, future prospects seem to be bright.

mongst the various prospect

industries, the aluminium sector
has accepted the challenge and so
far demonstrated significant
success during the past decade. This
segment of the national industry has
adopted technological advances at a
faster pace, utilising both domestic and
international resources. This attitude,
in conjunction with investors
awareness has prompted the
aluminium industry into a substantial
expansion over the years by upgrading
the
existing
technology
or
implementing innovative ideas.
Skilled human resources are another
strong input and global partnership
management has been adopted as a
successful tool. Local quality raw
material, particularly alumina has
placed the industry in an advantageous
position and some of the largest global
corporations have decided to explore
the possibility of increasing national
per capita aluminium consumption
from a mere 4kg, whilst the developed
world level is around 17kg.

INDUSTRY SCENARIO
The Indian aluminium industry
mainly comprises five primary
producers: Hindalco (Hindalco
Industries Ltd); Nalco (National
Aluminium Co Ltd); Indal (Indian
Aluminium Co Ltd); Balco (Bliarat
Aluminium Co Ltd), and Malco
(Madras Aluminium Co Ltd). (See
table 1).
It is quite evident from these figures
that Hindalco and Nalco are currently
the major players, showing reasonable
future growth plans. In addition,
Hindalco acquired a major share in
Indal in 2000. This has strengthened

NALCO currently planning plant extensions and technical upgrades

Hindalco in sourcing alumina and vice

versa for Indal in its metal input. The
amalgamation of these two companies,
both with wide product ranges, will
most likely place them in a much more
greatly advantageous position.
Similarly, Sterlite Industries Ltd has
successfully acquired India Foils Ltd,
the largest foil producer in the country.
With this, Sterlite is now very well
placed in the aluminium sector, having
its own downstream facility.
With the current disinvestment
policy of the Public Sector Units
(PSU) in India no one will be
surprised if the only existing State-run

Table 1: The annual production pattern is as follows (000 tonnes)

Hindalco
Nalco
Indal
Balco
Malco

1990-1991
150
218
117
100
25
610

2000-2001
242
230
110
100
25
707

Future Plan
100
115

plant, Nalco decides to sell part of its

holding in the near future. Various
overseas manufacturers are looking to
The Indian
merge with some of the secondary
producers/extruders with a view to
aluminium
exploit low cost production by
industry has
upgrading process technologies and
demonstrated
promoting the product in the
international marketplace.
significant
Today, Nalco and Hindalco are
success over the considered to be amongst the worlds
lowest cost producers and this has
past 10 years.
been possible by effective use of
capacity and technology, supported by
low cost captive power and quality
bauxite ore. To retain its competitive
edge, in-house R&D has played a
significant role in exploiting
innovative and creative ideas to ensure
a high standard of development
despite the bottlenecks of using
existing production technologies.
Product mix within the industry has
changed and emphasis has been given
to adding value to products.
Considering the change in application
patterns, rolled products in particular
have been identified as prime end
products and over the last decade the
production trend has been doubled
(See table 2).
Inter alia, Hindalco has increased its
extrusion capacity (from 8,500MT to
18,000MT), added a new foil plant
(capacity 13,430MT) and an alloy
wheel plant (capacity 300,000
wheels/yr). With the emerging

215

* The author is sales engineer with Pyrotek FZE, Dubai, U.A.E.

www.aluminiumtoday.co.uk

ALUMINIUM INTERNATIONAL TODAY March 2002

45

National Profile
Hindalco
Nalco
Indal
Balco

1990-1991
22500

2000-2001
80000
13500
90000
43600
227100

24825
44900
102225

Qty in MT
Future Plan
36500
40000
76500

Table 2: Production trend for rolled products

demand from the construction and

automotive industries, Hindalco has
diversified into these end user areas.

SAFETY/ENVIRONMENT
The focus of the Indian aluminium
industry has moved towards safer
working environments and this
positive change over the years has
enabled companies to implement
various measures, which in turn have
attracted overseas suppliers to work
together.
Consideration
of
Environmental Regulations within the
plant and associated health risks for the
employees has enabled them to benefit
from the boosted manpower output
and increased waste utilisation.
Regular training, exchange with safety
policy and rigorous implementation of
various common measures have
improved the overall working
environment in aluminium plants.

TRAINING
The national aluminium sector in
India has clearly acknowledged the

46

ALUMINIUM INTERNATIONAL TODAY March 2002

importance
of
exchange
of
information with the global players
and regular visits of their technical
personnel in respective areas.
Effective use of Technical collaboration and its
successful implementation is the key
capacity and
to success and today there is no doubt
technology
that without continued manpower
enables low-cost training and education industry cannot
improve the working culture and
production.
retain professional people. This has
been widely accepted by the corporate
management and special emphasis is
continuously being placed on
provision of overall training.

PYROTEKS POSITION
With general industry growth in
mind and to provide effective
customer service Pyrotek has forged
ahead and set up a manufacturing unit
in India, near Mumbai. Today, Pyrotek
is in a unique position to work closely
with aluminium industry customers in
India by providing the product and
continued interaction. The national
industry was, for quite sometime,

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looking
for a source of
specialised
high
temperature products and
quality refractories to further reduce
overall input costs and improve the
final product quality. With the
available materials technology from
Pyrotek, customers today are very well
placed with their end products on both
domestic and international markets.
An increasing export trend from the
major producers has enabled them to
compete effectively through the use of
widely accepted technologies in the
areas of, for example, degassing,
filtration, non-wetting refractories,
high
temperature
insulation,
specialised coatings, etc.
Prompt service by the local Pyrotek
sales engineer, supported by occasional
visits by the Pyrotek International
product manager have ensured a
strong bond between supplier and end
user. This Partnership Philosophy has
enabled Pyrotek, as a unique supplier
of high temperature consumables
(except capital equipment) from pot
room to cast house, to eliminate
various intermediate traders and has
allowed it to work directly with the
original manufacturer. All the
customers have now realised the
potential advantage of working with
the principal supplier.
G
Pyrotek
FZE,
Dubai,
U.A.E.
www.pyrotek-inc.com