bharat aluminium
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INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 2021 INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 2021148 149Experts’ View Experts’ View
What has been the success mantra of the company? What are some of the key milestones of the company in recent years?
India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and Aluminium is one of the key Growth Sectors for India and possess a huge potential to contribute as a wealth creator for nation’s economic growth.
BALCO’s Aluminium production is poised to chart the future appropriate self-reliance journey of the country. As BALCO grows in strength, it has been able to explore India’s demographic dividend that currently needs to be capitalized for the realization of our vision of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy. BALCO truly believes that despite the mammoth challenges that industries across the world are faced with, BALCO is on the right path to experience new heights of social, sustainable, and economic growth as we move from one milestone to the next.
BALCO has created a 360-degree multiplier effect for the nation. It resulted in the economic progress of the regional business community comprising over 5,000 downstream businesses. BALCO is keen to offer its community of industry associations, technical experts and research institutes for collaboration with MSMEs to engineer development of new products, product applications and new markets for those applications. BALCO
also runs a Cancer Hospital at Raipur with complete support from the government.
Can you share a brief background of the company and its operation? What are the key products / services provided by the company?
Producing 20% of the country’s aluminium today, BALCO produces nearly 6 lakh tons of Aluminium per annum. The power production capacity at BALCO has also reached 2010 MW per annum from 270 MW at the time of disinvestment. It has also generated employment for people from the local community.
BALCO’s aluminium production supports the self-reliance of the country, and this industry has been recognised as a champion industry. It is poised to grow to 10 lakh tons/annum which will be nearly 10 times the capacity it had at the time of disinvestment. The Aluminium sector plays a vital role in nation’s economy and is a sector of strategic importance to the country due to its role in energy security, national defense, aerospace, automobile, infrastructure, electricity transmission & distribution, and many other ancillary applications.
BALCO is deploying industry-leading digital technologies, creating super alloys to support the country’s emerging applications of aluminium to make aluminium usage comparable to the most developed countries in the world.
What makes BALCO Ltd stand out as compared to its industry peers? What are some of the competitive advantages the company holds?
Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) is India’s iconic aluminium producer. It is owned 49% by the Government of India and 51% by Vedanta Limited. Vedanta Limited is the world’s the largest producer of aluminium in India. BALCO operates a 0.57 million tonne per annum aluminium smelter in Korba, Chhattisgarh. It is also a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. With its world-class smelter and power plants, the company fulfills its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.
BALCO, the only aluminium industry in Chhattisgarh, has contributed significantly to empowering the state and the country in its 55 years of development journey. In the two decades after disinvestment, BALCO contributed about 1000 Cr to State Exchequer annually and employment to 15000 people directly & indirectly which will increase with our future expansion. BALCO has created economic opportunities worth thousands of crores of rupees in the state.
How has the pandemic impacted your organization? What steps did you take to tide over the crisis?
BHARAT ALUMINIUM COMPANY LIMITEDAbhijit PatiCEO & Director, BALCO
Over the last year, we have seen the development of a new normal due to the unprecedented spread of Covid-19. Hard hit by this pandemic, most industries shut down operations. However, BALCO continued to sustain production for the country with minimum resources while implementing and following all safety precautions.
Aided by leading-edge technology, BALCO adapted very quickly to the situation and has become more agile and resilient. Focusing on establishing a dynamic product portfolio which can respond to customer needs quickly and efficiently, BALCO aligns itself to meet the growing needs of emerging new-age applications across both domestic and global markets. We cater to our customers’ requirements through focused R&D and carefully developed new value-added products with the highest quality and sustainability standards.
Addressing ESG risks has emerged as one of the key priorities for businesses in recent years. What steps has the company taken to enhance its ESG ratings?
In BALCO, we have a robust and sustainable approach to resource optimization and energy consumption and have created a long-term developmental impact on local communities. We stand true to our ethos of Zero Harm, Zero Waste & Zero Discharge that underpins all that we do.
BALCO is committed to sustainable development and across all our areas of operations using new age technology, and judicious utilization of resources. BALCO has been one of the early adopters
in India to explore the field of smart technologies for heightened operational efficiencies. We are conscious of our responsibility towards building a stronger and sustainable tomorrow and, therefore, are actively exploring innovations that help reduce carbon footprint as early as possible in the creation process.
The company has integrated smart technologies and design modifications in its potlines progressively to reduce its specific power consumption by using graphitized pot with thermal modelling and other digital interventions. The company relentlessly drives innovation and continuous improvement in its smelting technology.BALCO’s specific energy consumption has been one of the lowest in the aluminium industries across the country.
BALCO has been the recipient of various awards and accolades for its environmental conservation efforts. For the year 2020, BALCO has won the ‘CII Energy Efficiency Award’, ‘Golden Peacock Sustainability Award’ and ‘CII HSE Excellence Award, Chhattisgarh’. BALCO has also achieved the ‘International Green Apple Award’ ‘CII Energy Excellence Award’, ‘Sustainable Business of the year Award’, ‘National Award for Excellence in Energy Management’ and ‘Energy & Environment Global Environment Award’ in recent years.
BALCO is benefitting more than 1.5 lakh of community members through its several CSR initiatives. BALCO has designed and implemented awareness campaign across villages and supported the district administration in fighting COVID-19 by providing them with medicines and PPE kits. The company is helping district
administration in vaccination drive in the district for the people in Korba and has also established a 100 bedded COVID Field hospital at Naya Raipur. BALCO is also providing livelihood opportunities for the community members through Vedanta Skill School and Project Unnati initiatives in the region.
What is the company’s outlook over the next 3-5 years?
BALCO currently ranks second in the country based on its current production capacity. With the increase in the capacity through our future expansion, BALCO will join the ‘One Million Tonnes Club’. The proposed expansion capacity will take BALCO to 14th position in the world.
The above expansion will contribute about 600 Cr to state exchequer, Direct & Indirect employment to about 2,000 people. This will also empower the communities in and around at Korba City and contribute towards their social & economic upliftment. We expected to touch livelihoods of around 30,000 people through our future projects. We have a deep interest to set-up an Aluminium Park to cater to this additional Capacity.
BALCO is also looking forward to working towards challenges of raw material availability (Bauxite & Coal Shortage), High incidence of taxes, duties and cess, high Carbon Tax, Increasing Import of Aluminium and Scrap, declining domestic market share and unorganized domestic recycling industry due to lack of standards faced by the aluminium sector & the reforms required for strengthening the Indian industry.