Smelter Expansion
Nalco denies report of delay in INR-300-bln capex for smelter expansion
This story was originally published at 15:29 IST on 5 June 2025
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NEW DELHI – National Aluminium Co. Ltd. has not deferred its capital expenditure plan of INR 300 billion towards brownfield smelter expansion with captive power, the company said Thursday. In a stock exchange filing, the company responded to a news report in The Hindu BusinessLine on Thursday that said the project for which the capex plan was made was delayed by a year as discussions with Rio Tinto Canada for a crucial technology partnership had collapsed.
In Thursday's filing, the company said discussion with technology partners, including Rio Tinto Alcan, the Canadian subsidiary of mining conglomerate Rio Tinto, "is being actively pursued and is on track". The company said it wasn't able to disclose more details of such discussions as it was premature.
Responding to an analyst's question in a post-March quarter earnings conference call, Nalco Chairman and Managing Director Brijendra Singh had said that in the smelter expansion project, the company had plans to go ahead with its detailed project report that was earlier met with Rio Tinto's technology. "But RTAL (Rio Tinto Alcan) now is not willing to give up their technology. So, again, we are revisiting it," Singh had said.
He had also said that the company had set a target to be ready with a detailed project report in the next six-eight months, following which the company would go for tendering. "Our target is the next one, one and a half years to finish off the tendering activity. And if it completes by the end of last year, then actual commissioning and all that will take three-four years," Singh had said.
In Thursday's filing, the company also refuted the news report's claim that the company had stalled talks with NTPC Ltd. for power supply for the smelter expansion project. "The power requirement for smelter expansion and different configurations...are being considered. JV (joint venture), if any, with suitable partners would be firmed up after finalisation of the DPR (detailed project report)," the company said in the filing.
At 1518 IST, shares of Nalco were flat at INR 182.68 on the National Stock Exchange. End
Reported by Rajesh Gajra
Edited by Avishek Dutta
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