Aluminium - Enriching A Billion Lives

What’s up? What had you been up to this week? I’d been to the national level seminar on ‘ Aluminium – The Strategic Metal ’ this Thursday. It was organised by the Aluminium Association of India (AAI) and presided over by the Union Mines Secretary - Mr. Balwinder Kumar and others. It was quite interesting to know about developments in the aluminum industry. Plus the venue was Hotel Mayfair. Who could miss that? Now tell me what happened there? In the welcome address by Dr. TK Chand, the president of AAI and CMD of NALCO, he began by pointing out that Aluminium metal is always associated with 3 important words – ‘Strategic, Green & Future’. The metal has numerous applications and that Odisha has more than half of the country’s bauxite reserves. However, all is not well at the moment. Sluggish market conditions, vagaries of the commodity cycle, cheap imports from China & the Middle East has hit the Indian Aluminum Industry quite badly. Even though ...

In an effort to give a shot in the arm to the ailing domestic aluminium industry, the Aluminium Association of India (AAI) has taken a significant step forward by opening a dialogue with the federal government of India. The aluminium industry in India is going through turbulent times and the domestic manufacturers are bearing the brunt of the downturn in the global commodity cycle which has been further aggravated by huge imports from China & Gulf countries. This can also be attributed to the steady rise in imports, falling aluminium prices and increasing production costs. The industry is presently struggling with a debt of about Rs. 70,000 crores in the domestic scenario which has seen a massive investment to the tune of Rs. 1.2 lac crores in the past few years. The volatility of the LME prices have also abetted in the financial crisis that the aluminium industry is currently facing. In the face of these odds, the AAI has sought help from the government on a three point ...