NALCO to miss FY11 alumina production target

National Aluminium Co Ltd (NALCO) will fall about 100,000 tonnes short of its production target of 1.68 million tonnes of alumina in the fiscal year to March, its finance director said, due to delays in refinery expansion.

"We will be able to produce 15.8 or 15.85 lakh (1.58 or 1.585 million) tonnes only," said B L Bagra, adding expansion of refinery capacity suffered due to a Maoist attack on NALCO's bauxite mine near Damanjodi in 2009 in Orissa.

NALCO is India's third-largest producer of aluminium.

"After the ... attack two years ago, most of the contractors and contract labourers had left the place. It took quite some time to bring them back one by one," said Bagra.

Commissioning of expansion at the refinery -- which is at the same site as the mine -- was slated for January.

Bagra said the additional alumina, which was to come from the expansion of the refinery, was now delayed until after the end of March, when the extra capacity should come onstream.

Bagra said the company will be able to achieve its aluminium production target of about 0.44 million tonnes. NALCO produced 1.592 million tonnes of alumina and 0.431 million tonnes of aluminium in 2009/10.

The export of both alumina and aluminium by the company will also see a decline due to increasing domestic demand, he said.