By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 9, 2015 : The metal major National Aluminium Company’s [Nalco] search for setting up a Greenfield aluminium smelter and a power plant overseas may finally be over with the six world powers led by US reaching a nuclear deal with Iran paving the way for lifting of sanctions on Tehran.

The blue-chip government of India owned company had been planning to set an aluminium smelter and an associated power plant in Iran worth as much as $2.6 billion for long time. But due to sanctions, the project was getting delayed, Company sources said.

“We will meet India’s foreign ministry officials and the ambassador of Iran in New Delhi next week to discuss the project. We would prefer a local partner who could supply cheap power to run one million ton per annum smelter in Iran. Nalco would source alumina as raw material for the plant from its refinery in Odisha,” said Nalco chairman-cum-managing Director Tapan Kumar Chand.

“You can’t remain at the same place. If you don’t grow, competitors will start growing and you will be squeezed out of the market,” he remarked.

Drastic fall in margins on the prices for aluminium due to an oversupply would not be a deterrent to the plans.

“The new plant would take 2-3 years to complete and by then demand could improve given the nature of such cyclical industries. Generally producers take the opportunity of such downturns to build up their plant capacities, so that as and when demand picks up, they are in a position to cater to that,” he explained.

Nalco tried to set up a smelter plant in Oman and Indonesia through a consultant, but nothing concrete came out of it.