Nalco puts on hold plan to build smelter In Indonesia

India-based National Aluminium Company Ltd. (Nalco) said it has put on hold its proposed alumina smelter project in Indonesia due to uncertainty over the availability of coal, newstrackindia.com reported on Wednesday.

The Bhubaneswar headquartered company wants to set up a 0.5 million tons per annum capacity aluminium smelter in East Kalimantan area of Indonesia at an investment of about $4 billion. It wants to set up a coal fired 1,250 MW captive power plant to power the smelter.

Nalco has been hoping to set up the smelter, primarily backed by availability of good quality coal at economical prices, but has been facing troubles, Nalco chairman B.L. Bagra told IANS.

Nalco has already identified a coal mining company through a bidding process to source coal on a long term basis. However, the project has got delayed, mainly because the coal company has not been able to achieve financial closure for their project, Bagra said.

"Further, the coal mining company is undergoing ownership restructuring. In view of these uncertainties, we have put the project proposal on hold," he added.(*)