Indian Aluminum Smelter Increasing Production

India's National Aluminum Co.'s smelter will run at a new capacity of 345,000 metric tons a year by the second quarter of 2002.

The smelter expansion represents a 50 percent increase from the current 230,000 tons/year.

Nalco is India's largest aluminum producer, and its alumina refinery is the world's ninth largest.

The increased aluminum output is mostly slated for export, the spokesman said. Nalco exports more than 50 percent of its aluminum to the U.S., Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore.

The expansion is in line with the company's production capacity increase for alumina - a raw material used in aluminum production.

This month, Nalco will complete an expansion of alumina production facilities, lifting its capacity to 1.575 million tons, from the current 1.05 million tons.

In the fiscal year ending March 2002, Nalco plans to produce 1.15 million tons of alumina, compared with 939,000 tons in the previous fiscal year, the spokesman said.

Of the total alumina output, the company will export a total of 700,000 tons to the U.S., China, Commonwealth of Independent States, Iran and United Arab Emirates. Dow Jones Newswires