The Hindu Business Line : Vedanta to hike capacity; targets $6-billion turnover

VEDANTA Resources plc, the London-headquartered metals and mining group with operations in India, plans to hike capacity in each of the three metals it produces to 500,000 tonnes a year and achieve a turnover of $5-6 billion from $2 billion now, in the next two to three years.

The group plans to invest $2.1 billion in its operations here in next year or two. For this, it raised $1 billion through an initial public offering recently. The balance will come from a mix of internal accruals and debt. The bulk of the proposed investment - $1.7-$1.9 billion - will be in the aluminium business, according to top Vedanta officials.

Vedanta Resources is active in copper, aluminium and zinc and has a capacity of 200,000 tonnes a year in each of these metals. It operates two copper mines in Australia and recently signed an agreement with the government in Zambia to take over and run the largest copper mine and smelter in that country, according to Mr Anil Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer, Vedanta Resources plc.

Once the capacity in the Indian operations is increased, Vedanta hopes to increase exports from about 20 per cent now (mostly in copper) to about 50 per cent of sales.

The companies owned by Vedanta in India include Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd, Madras Aluminium Company Ltd, India Foils Ltd, Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd and Hindustan Zinc Ltd.

Mr Agarwal said a 1.4 million tonnes a year greenfield alumina project will be put in Orissa while capacities at Sterlite Industries copper smelter in Tuticorin and Madras Aluminium Co in Mettur, both in Tamil Nadu, will be expanded. At Tuticorin, the capacity will go up to 330,000 tonnes a year from 180,000 tonnes.

Also, the plant will become an integrated producer of copper when earlier the raw material from the Tuticorin plant was sent to another plant in Silvassa, in Dadra and Nagar Haveli, for making the end product.

The Tamil Nadu Government had requested the company to manufacture the end product in Tuticorin itself, which would now be done once the new copper cathode refinery with a capacity of 127,000 tonnes went on stream, he said.