ALUMINIUM

Media reports about additional aluminium production are scarce though the subject is not being ignored. A production target of 5m TPA is projected for 2015-2020 but detailed knowledge about the potential product and demand mix is absent. While there is a national steel policy, as yet there is no national aluminium policy.

So far, aluminium is confined to pots and pans, kitchen foil and household goods. The fabrication of aluminium doors and windows began but never caught on due to theft of these items from buildings. Aluminium wires are supposed to replace copper for the high voltage electricity supply network, though this has to be authenticated.

The production of aluminium extruded sections has recently begun too, but this is only a secondary sector industry.

However, in the tertiary sector, high-tech fabrication, markets may be emerging:

Superstructures for cargo ships
Fully-welded hulls plus superstructures for fast naval vessels
Rolling stock for high-speed railways
Regional aircraft in the 20-100 seat capacity range
Portable bridges for Army engineers

None of the above are easy to design or construct. However, a lucrative market is emerging. At the moment, there is little relevant engineering expertise in India and almost all of these items are currently either imported or made within the country only under licence.

It is thus necessary to introduce a national aluminium policy as soon as possible, and ED&MFT intends to mobilise all the relevant high-tech expertise from Europe (eg. from Training in Aluminium Application Technologies [TALAT] at the University of Liverpool).