National Aluminium Production Hit By Coal Shortage — Exec

MUMBAI (Dow Jones)-India’s state-run National Aluminium Company Ltd.'s daily aluminum production was down by nearly 30% in the last four days due to a shortage of coal supply to power its smelter, the chairman and managing director of the company said Monday.

"The smelter has been running under capacity in the last four days as coal stocks are almost nil. Although coal supply was resumed on Sunday, the smelter will take another 2–4 days to come back to normal capacity utilization," C.R. Pradhan said.

The company’s Angul smelter in the eastern Orissa state, which has a capacity to produce 345,000 metric tons of aluminum per year, was affected by a strike by truck owners that interrupted supply from Mahanadi Coal Ltd.

Nalco requires 13,000 tons of coal a day to run its eight power plants, which supply energy to its Angul smelter.

Pradhan said the company is looking at building coal stocks in the next few days and has floated a tender to procure 100,000 tons of non-coking coal from the domestic market in order to ensure supply for its power plants.