Hindalco Industries, a Aditya Birla group company has plans to double its capacities with an investment outlay of over USD 5 billion.

Mr D Bhattacharya MD of Hindalco Industries Limited said that the company aims to more than double its capacity from the current levels in the next 4 and 5 years. There are many fund raising options available. It could be debt, project financing, bonds, local or external commercial borrowings. Once the project comes to fusion, then we look for the funds.

Mr Bhattacharya said that "We are investing USD 5 billion right now and it could be another USD 5 billion. Without coal blocks, we will not put up a power plant. Without a power plant we will not put up our smelter. So, the starting point is bauxite mine and then coal mine. If we get these two, we will certainly go ahead.

The country's largest Aluminum producer with annual capacity of 0.75 million tonnes is in the process of expanding its Uttar Pradesh and Odisha plants. It is also setting up three Greenfield facilities one in Maharashtra and two in Jharkhand.

Mr Bhattacharya said that the company's 0.36 million tonne annual capacity plant in Madhya Pradesh is expected to commence production in 3 to 5 weeks. As there were delays in obtaining forest clearances for its coal blocks meant for power plants, the company decided to buy coal from other sources.

(Sourced from economictimes.indiatimes.com)