India may push domestic aluminum industry

The upstream and downstream companies of the metal industry welcomed the measures for coal and mineral industry announced by the Indian Finance Minister.

Satish Pai, Managing Director of Hindalco Industries Ltd., said that these measures will improve the convenience for business operations as well as to greatly increase the global competitiveness for India.

Ajay Kapur, the CEO of Aluminium & Power at Vedanta Limited, said that India still depended on 60% aluminum imports despite a sufficient domestic production capacity, leading to a foreign currency outflow of Rs 380 billion.

Therefore, he said that the Indian government might strive to promote the domestic aluminum industry and take the domestic aluminum to be used in India as a first consideration.