The Hindu Business Line : Vedanta chalks out $12.5-b investment plan

Expansion thrust
The company intends to increase its iron ore production to 20 mt
It plans to set up power generation capacity of close to 10,000 MW

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Jan. 16 The metals and mining company Vedanta Resources plans to invest about $12.5 billion to accelerate its business growth.

It is aiming at increasing production capacity for each of its primary metals such as aluminium, copper, zinc and lead to one million tonne per annum.

Apart from this, it also intends to increase its iron ore production to 20 million tonnes. On the power generation front, the company plans to set up commercial power generation capacity of close to 10,000 MW in the next few years.

Mr Anil Aggarwal, Chairman of the Vedanta Group, told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual business partnership summit here that Sterlite Energy, a Vedanta Group company, planned to go in for a IPO in the next few months. He, however, did not specify the size of the offering.

The Vedanta Group’s business partnership summit brought together its vendor partners, entrepreneurs and industry experts in the metals and mining sector on a single platform. This summit was the first of its kind in India.

Aluminium tech park

An aluminium technology park in Chhattisgarh has been conceived with the support of the Chhattisgarh government, where entrepreneurs will set up downstream product units such as extrusions, castings and PP caps. Further, investments in aluminium fluoride, gypsum boards, copper slag have been partnered with domestic and international entrepreneurs.

As the metals and mining process generates residues, Vedanta signed MoUs at its summit to set up plaster board units using gypsum. Other similar MoUs are in the pipeline.

The two-day business summit attracted over 1,400 vendors including over 150 foreign delegates.

Vedanta currently has over 5,000 vendors and given its expansion plans, it expects to strengthen its relationship with its existing partners, as well as develop an additional 1,000 business partnerships with potential entrepreneurs.

The group companies that participated in the summit included Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, Sesa Goa Ltd, Vedanta Aluminum Ltd, Madras Aluminium Co Ltd, Sterlite Energy Ltd, Konkola Copper Mines and Bharat Aluminium Co Ltd.