Coal shortage now at alarming levels, say aluminium producers

New Delhi: With no relief in sight despite coal stocks running critically low and production disruptions looming across the Indian aluminium sector, the Aluminium Association of India (AAI) has approached the Ministry of Coal, urging the immediate resumption of adequate coal rakes for the highly power-intensive Aluminium industry.

In itsrepresentation to the Ministry, the AAI has lauded the combinedefforts by theMinistry of Coal and Coal India Limitedin reviving domestic coal production,which has helped ease the coal supply crisis for the Power Sector. The steps undertaken by the Ministry increased the overall daily rakes dispatched from 242 rakes/day in September 2021 to 289 rakes/day in December 2021.

This has drastically strengthened the coal stocks of the Power Sector to around 10 days, a marked improvement from a mere 2-3 days in the months of September-October last year.

However, this has come at enormous cost to the Captive Power Plants (CPP)-based industry and the worst impacted isthe Indian aluminium industry, whichcontinues to see depleting coal stocks of only 3-4 days, abysmally low compared to the prescribed level of 15 days for

the sector.