Balco fights time, odds

The 400-acre site where Bharat Aluminum Company Limited8217;s Balco expansion plant is coming up is buzzing with activity. Over 2,000 peo...

The 400-acre site where Bharat Aluminum Company Limited8217;s Balco expansion plant is coming up is buzzing with activity. Over 2,000 people, including 70-odd Chinese professionals, are at work round the clock here. Even half a dozen mishaps 8212; three of which were fatal 8212; in the last three months failed to stop work even for a day.

The 39-year old aluminum giant is racing against time to meet its goal to become India8217;s Number One aluminium producer.

The 2.5 lakh-tonne expansion plant, as targeted, will go into trial production as early as December. Final commissioning of the plant will take place nine months later, increasing Balco8217;s annual capacity from one lakh tonne to 3.5 lakh tonnes.

Currently Balco8217;s only competitors in the aluminum sector are Hindalco 8212; a unit of the Birla Group 8212; and state-run NALCO. Till three years ago, Sterlite Industries 8212; Balco8217;s new owner 8212; was not even sure if the existing plant 8216;shut down after 76-day strike of the Balco unions8217; would be revived.

After posting Rs 67-crore net profit last year 8212; despite clearing Rs 120 crore VRS burden 8212; Balco8217;s next target is to become the Number 1 aluminium producer in India by 2006.

Under the Rs 6,500-crore expansion drawn two years ago, Balco proposes to capitalise on its location in Chhattisgarh, which has the country8217;s largest bauxite and coal reserves. The company has gone a step ahead and set up an alumina refinery unit at Lanjigarh, Kalahandi district, Orissa. Managing Director T.L. Palani Kumar, who visited the plant last week, said: 8216;8216;In the past two years, we concentrated on expansion plans and selected the world8217;s best technologies. Orders for machinery worth Rs 4,000 crore have been placed. Over Rs 2,000 crore been invested on the ground. Things are going as planned and we plan to hit the market next year.8217;8217;

For the first time, Balco has selected two Chinese companies 8212; GAMI and SEPCO 8212; for installing machinery at its one-kilometer-long smelter shed.

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But the Prime Minister8217;s declaration that the Centre would sell the remaining 49 per cent of Balco shares has sparked resentment among unions. The Balco Bachao Sangrah Samiti has sent a memorandum to PM in this regard. The workers also staged a demonstration the day the Balco MD visited the plant.

Kumar says the government, as per the disinvestment deal, is legally bound to allot the remaining shares to the Sterlite Industries.