Kolkata:State-owned National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) is contemplating a new 0.5 million tonne smelter in Andhra Pradesh to convert all of its expanded alumina capacity into aluminium, and will not export alumina after the expansion, its CMD B P Singh said.

NALCO's alumina production capacity is currently 2.1 million tonnes per annum and will go up to 3.1 million tonnes with the commissioning of its new refinery by FY28. The company presently exports about 0.13 million tonnes of alumina, but with the vision of the ministry, the aluminium major aims to produce value-added aluminium from its entire alumina capacity. Singh, speaking on the sidelines of a roadshow for Angul Aluminium industrial park, said that with the Andhra Pradesh smelter, NALCO can use 100 per cent of the expanded alumina capacity of 3.1 million tonnes for its own aluminium production. The company is targeting aluminium capacity of about 1.5 million tonnes.

"Land is not yet visible. We are holding talks with the state government. Once that comes, it will be announced," he said. NALCO's current smelter capacity is 0.46 million tonnes per annum. In September this year, the company signed a technology licensing agreement with the UAE's Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) to use its DX+ Ultra smelting technology for a 0.5 million tonne per annum brownfield expansion at Angul in Odisha.