Aluminium industry to attract $ 2.5 bn,create 10mn jobs in 4 yrs

Hyderabad, Nov 21 (UNI) India could logically position itself as a primary producer, consumer and exporter of all forms of aluminium, attracting investments of around Rs 1,000 billion (USD 2.5 billion) in the next four years and create jobs for Ten million people, Aluminium Association of India President D Bhattacharya said today.

Delivering the keynote address at the International Conference and Exhibition on Aluminium ''INCAL 2007'' here, he said with five million tonne per annum capacity by 2015, the country would be among the top three in the world, the others being China and Brazil.

Of the three, India had the advantage of quality bauxite reserves and domestic demand unlike China, which did not have good quality bauxite, and Brazil, which did not enjoy a vast market, he observed.

Aluminium, particularly the downstream industries, could be a major employment generator and this had been well recognised by Chinese policy makers, Mr Bhattacharya, also Hindalco Industries Limited Managing Director, said, adding by 2030, aluminium consumption growth would be driven by China and India.

While the consumption growth in India was 24 per cent now, next only to China's 26 per cent, it was projected to grow more than five-fold by 2030 with huge growth in key enduser segment with passenger car sale growing by 11.7 per cent per annum, two wheelers growing by 11.5 per cent and power sector expected to add 68 million MW additional capacity by 2012.

UNI