India's Aluminium Producer Nalco to Upgrade Smelter Technology

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--National Aluminum Company Limited (BSE:532234) (Nalco) (Bhubaneswar, Orissa), India's largest integrated aluminum producer, has undertaken a $339 million technology upgrade program to replace the 180-kilo-amperage (KA) pot line at its smelter in Angul, Orissa, with 220-KA pots.

Aluminum Pechiney (France), which provided Nalco with its proprietary 180-KA smelting technology in 1980, will provide the technology for the upgraded smelting pot line. Implementation of the new technology will be phased in over a period of time and will be completed by 2017; instead of the smelting production line being decommissioned, each pot will be replaced to ensure no production loss. When completed, the next generation technology will enable Nalco to increase metal production from 4.6 million to 5.2 million tons.

"The enhancement of amperage of the pots from 180 KA to 220 KA will increase productivity of each pot, while reducing per-unit cost of power and smelting efficiency is expected to improve by around 20%," Nalco officials said.

"Since the 180-KA technology was originally provided to Nalco by Aluminum Pechiney, the technology for enhancement of amperage too had to be from the same company," the officials said.

According to the officials, implementation of the new technology at Nalco's "mother plant" in Angul is critical, since the company will adopt the same 220-KA technology for its new projects overseas. Nalco is constructing a 500,000-ton aluminum smelter and a 1,250-MW captive power plant at an investment of $4 billion in East Kalimantan province of Indonesia. The company is also constructing a 500,000-ton Greenfield aluminum smelter and a 1,250-MW captive power plant at an investment of $3.5 billion in Sundergarh district of Orissa.

The technology upgrade to the Angul smelter also will involve adding a 500-MW captive power plant to its existing 1,200-MW power production facility. Nalco is nearing completion of its second phase expansion that will increase bauxite mining capacity from 4.8 million to 6.3 million tons, and alumina production from 1.57 million to 2.1 million tons.

The company also has announced details of its $1.3 billion third-phase expansion program, which will increase alumina production to 2.9 million tons and metal production to 5.7 million tons.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. IIR's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.