NALCO losing Rs 1 cr/day due to coal shortage

State-run aluminium producer NALCO is facing a production loss of about Rs 1 crore per day due to coal shortage, a company official said today.

"We are losing about Rs 1 crore per day due to coal shortage... the production has to be scaled down as there has been very less availability of coal from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL)," the official said.

The company has cut down its daily production to 1,000 tonne against the normal rate of output at 1,200 tonnes at the Angul smelter unit in Orissa due to coal shortage.

National Aluminium Company's (NALCO) smelter produces approximately 37,000 tonne of metal per month and runs on power supplied by captive power plant unit, having a total production capacity of about 1,200 MW.

However, the official added that due to less availability of coal, the captive power generation has gone down to about 500-600 MW a day against the normal production rate of 850-860 MW, thereby, affecting the power supply to aluminium smelter.

"Against our daily requirement of 12,000 tonne, we are getting about 7,400-7,500 tonnes of coal per day from MCL for last few weeks, primarily due to heavy rainfall," the official further said.

The official added that "due to coal shortage, the company has shut down about 120 pots out of 960 operational pots (of the smelter) from last Thursday to ensure safe operations and unhindered power supply to the remaining pots."

Expressing hope that it is a temporary shutdown, the official said that NALCO has coal stocks of about 90,000 tonne.

"Production would be normal soon, if (coal) supplies are restored," the official said.

Asked about the estimated delivery time of two lakh tonne of coal which the company had decided to import on September 14, the official said, "it has not yet been received. May be, in next couple of days, we would get it".