The Aluminium Association of India has reached out to the Prime Minister’s Office to help address the “precarious situation” the industry is in due to limited coal supply, warning of more than one million job losses.
In a letter dated October 26, the association said: “The current shortage due to stoppage/curtailment of coal supplies and rakes has threatened the very survival of the domestic aluminium industry with risk of loss of over one million livelihood and [about] 5,000 SMEs in the downstream sector”.
Since August 21, the industry has been getting only 50% of required coal supplies, which has declined to 10% currently. The industry has coal stocks of only 1.5-3 days and is on the verge of a stockout, it said.
“If coal shortage is not immediately addressed, it may lead to collapse of the aluminium industry and associated SMEs,” the representative entity said, adding that this would also lead to additional national foreign exchange loss of ₹90,000 crore due to higher imports.
“We earnestly request your kind intervention to normalise the precarious situation with immediate resumption of coal and rakes supply for highly power-intensive aluminium industry CPPs for economically viable and sustainable industry operations,” it added.
The aluminum industry had earlier this month sent an SOS to Coal India and the Coal Ministry demanding immediate resumption of supplies.
