Several copper firms in India are nearing completion of smelter expansion projects. When complete, these operations could require a significant increase in the amount of scrap copper. Two of the firms, Sterlite Industries and Birla Copper, are expected to complete expansions next month.
SWIL Ltd., another firm, is setting up a 70,000 metric ton-a-year capacity copper smelter that will start commercial production by the end of this year.
With the commissioning of these projects, India's copper production capacity will rise by over 55 percent to 418,000 metric tons a year.
Analysts say copper demand in India is expected to rise by about eight percent to 325,000-330,000 metric tons this year and next year, from about 300,000 metric tons in the previous year.
Birla Copper, a unit of Indo Gulf Corp., is expanding the annual production capacity of its copper smelter at Dahej in Gujarat to150,000 metric tons from 100,000 metric tons by removing bottlenecks and installing additional machinery, a company official said.
The firm produced 113,800 metric tons of copper with a capacity use of over 113 percent, against about 95,000 metric tons in1999-2000.
Copper and aluminum maker Sterlite already expanded capacity of its copper plant to 120,000 metric tons from 100,000 metric tons in the first phase.
The company's smelter in the state of Tamil Nadu produced 110,000 metric tons of copper in 2000-01, compared with 94,723 metrictons the previous year.
SWIL Ltd will source 80 percent of its total raw material requirement, in the form of copper scrap, mainly from the United States, Middle East and Europe and the rest by importing copper concentrate from mines in Chile.
SWIL also plans to export about 40,000 metric tons of copper metal every year from the next fiscal.
The start or expansion of copper smelters in India adds to some signs that the offshore market for some scrap copper is improving.
One broker of scrap copper notes that despite some difficulties on the domestic side, there is some play in India and China, as well as in Europe.