Mines minister Piyush Goyal calls for cutting aluminium imports

Kolkata: Union minister of state (independent charge) for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goel addresses at a media conference during inauguration of "CII National Council meeting" in Kolkata on Tuesday. PTI Photo (PTI1_3_2017_000149B)

India needs to cut its import dependence on alumina as well as primary aluminium and focus on further on value addition by converting them to finished products for sale.

"India produces alumina in fair measure, which could be raw material for  growing aluminium needs for the country. We choose to export the raw material alumina rather than process it in the country and value add jobs and create wealth," Mines Minister Piyush Goyal said at Network18's aluminium on Thursday.

The country needs to support and encourage production of alumina, aluminium, as well as downstream products and become self reliant, he said.

"Instead of adding value, the country is still dependent on imports. The imports don't stop just at alumina, they don’t stop at primary alumina. They import downstream finished products, thereby losing jobs in every angle of value chain," he said. "It is important to check such kind of wrong practices," he added.

He further said that being dependent on imports would represent a lurking danger for the local industry as it will lose competitive edge.