Vedanta Aluminium on Track for 50% Market Share
- To boost margins through value-added products
- Vedanta to expand India’s aluminium production capacity
Vedanta Aluminium—India’s largest aluminium producer, currently holding nearly half of the domestic market share among primary producers—is strongly positioned to capitalize on the country’s rapidly growing demand for aluminium. While the company currently commands approximately 50% of the domestic market among primary producers, the overall demand for aluminium in India is, in fact, surging at a remarkable pace. Aluminium demand in India is growing at an annual rate of 6%, a figure significantly higher than the global average. To meet this escalating demand, the company is actively expanding its production capacity and simultaneously working on plans to operationalize its captive mines.
To cater to the rising demand for aluminium, the company is working on a plan to expand the smelter capacity of Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) by 435 KT, bringing the total capacity to 1 million tonnes. This expansion will play a pivotal role in meeting the growing domestic demand. Indeed, selling aluminium in the domestic market yields higher returns than exporting it; consequently, this strategic shift is expected to lead to an improvement in the company’s profit margins.
Furthermore, the company is actively focusing on the production of high-margin, value-added products, aiming to increase the contribution of these products to over 90% of its total sales. This portfolio includes billets for the construction, railway, automotive, and clean energy sectors; rolled products manufactured at BALCO, which are utilized across the automotive, electrical, power, insulation, and packaging industries; and primary foundry alloys designed for the automotive sector and advanced manufacturing applications. The company’s product portfolio spans hot and liquid metal, wire rods, ingots and alloy ingots, billets, slabs, rolled products, sow ingots, Aluminum-Silicon (AlSi) T-ingots, flip coils, and low-carbon variants—’Restora’ and ‘Restora Ultra’. The company benefits significantly from this extensive product range; moreover, the introduction of new value-added products is poised to position the company even more favorably. Indeed, with the country targeting a 30% share of electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, the demand for EVs—and, consequently, for premium aluminum—is witnessing rapid growth. To cater to this demand, the company is investing approximately ₹30,000 crore, a substantial portion of which has already been deployed toward its expansion plans. The company is now entering the ‘harvest phase’ of its investment cycle. Additionally, the company is developing a ₹1.3 lakh crore greenfield aluminum smelter project in Odisha, which will comprise a smelter with an annual capacity of 3 million tonnes and a 4,900 MW captive power plant. This initiative is expected to result in a significant boost to India’s global aluminum production capacity.
