Critical coal shortages hit aluminium plants in India

On Friday, industry body AAI warned that the aluminium plants in the nation are grappling with a severely low level of coal stocks and if the fuel supply is not resumed quickly it would result in irrevocable collateral damage.

The statement comes when the coal supply by the CIL to non-power sectors has stopped tentatively amid electricity-producing facilities in the nation meeting fuel shortages.

The Aluminium Association of India (AAI) told the media that the aluminium industry has not received any support concerning the continuing coal supply crisis. Indian aluminium facilities are grappling with severely low levels of coal stock, with no support or alternative means to reach their power requirements and keep the plants operational.

Any power outage in aluminium facilities will result in a catastrophic impact and complete shutdown, which will take a minimum of 12 months of recovery, leading to job loss of over 8 lakh people. Banks will have debt exposure of more than Rs 1 lakh crore and an additional national forex loss of Rs 90,000 crore.

Aluminium generation is a 24x7, 365 days constant process industry. There is no term to switch off and switch on. It is a highly power-intensive industry. One tonne of aluminium needs 14,500 units of continuous power which is 15 times in contrast to steel and 145 times for cement.

It additionally said that Coal India should quickly restore continuous coal supply to the aluminium industry to prevent the closure of the plants, it added.

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