By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, September 21, 2018: Coal shortage has hit aluminium producers Vedanta, Nalco and Hindalco in Odisha, accounting for 54 per cent of the country’s aluminium capacity.

Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL), a subsidiary of Coal India (CIL) provides coal requirement to run their captive power plants (CPPs) — a key component in the aluminium making process as energy costs account for 40 per cent of the production cost of the metal.

Nalco, Hindalco and Vedanta are now sourcing coal from outside the state and abroad or resort to power imports, impacting their production cost. Sourcing of coal from domestic alternatives has an additional cost impact of Rs 300 to Rs 1,200 per tonne, use of imported coal pushes up the input cost for CPPs by Rs 1,500 per tonne.

Vedanta requires around 18 MT of coal annually to run its CPP units, against which the company received less than 10 MT from MCL, while Nalco, with 0.42 MT of metal production in FY18, requires 64 MT of coal to feed its 1,200-Mw CPP.