India’s copper production fell by 80.39pc to 408,398mt in FY 2020 ( fiscal year April 2019-March 2020) from 736,983mt in 2018-2019 due to permanent closure of Vedanta’s Tamil Nadu smelter/refinery plant in May 2018. Aluminium, zinc and lead production also fell from the prior year, according to the data released by Ministry of mines for FY 2020.
Aluminium
With a fall in the three-month aluminium contract by 1.52pc in March to $1,685.85/mt from $1,711/mt in February, three of the four aluminium producers cut their production. Vedanta and Balco, however, exceeded their monthly target. Nalco and Hindalco though could not meet their monthly target amid supply chain disruption due to COVID-19 pandemic gripping India.
Vedanta Limited produced 127,940mt of aluminium as against its target of 107,940mt, up by 18.69pc. Balco’s production rose by 0.37pc to 48,981mt as against its target of 48,800mt.
Nalco produced 35,799mt in March as against its production target of 37,400mt for the month and sold 15,720mt.
Hindalco produced 109,666mt as against its target of 111,231mt, down by1.8pc.
In FY 2020, the four producers together produced 3,656,130mt of aluminium, down by 1.04pc from 3,694,342mt in the prior year.
Global production of aluminium was about 15.99mn mt against the consumption of 14.59mn mt, resulting in a surplus of 1.40mn mt in Jan- March 2020.
A deficit of 730,000mt is likely in the April-June quarter, as global consumption is estimated to inch up to 17.19mn mt against the production of 16.46mn mt.
Copper
Indian consumption of refined copper is around 660,000mt. Copper production declined following the permanent closure of Vedanta’s smelter/refinery plant by Tamil Nadu Government in May 2018.
Hindustan Copper (HCL), the only copper ore producer in India produced 219,645mt of copper ore in March 2020, only 51pc of the target. The company produced 1,526mt of Metal-in-Concentrate or 56pc of its target and 465mt of CC wire rods, 27pc of the target.
On shortage of copper concentrate supply, HCL reported nil copper cathode production in March 2020.
Collective production by HCL, Hindalco, SSL fell by 80.39pc to 408,398mt in FY 2020 from 736,983mt FY 2019. The three companies together have an annual capacity of 1,018,500mt.
Zinc
Hindustan Zinc’s (HZL) produced 46,596mt in March 2020, down from 81,644mt of monthly target production. In FY 2020, HZL’s production fell by 1.16pc to 688,286mt FY 2019 from 696,283mt in the prior-year period.
Lead
Hindustan Zinc produced 15,406mt of lead in March 2020 against the target of 21,571mt for the month. In FY 2020, HZL produced 181,370mt of lead, down by 8.84pc from 197,838mt in the prior year.