Govt Enforces ‘Melt and Pour’ Rule for All Steel in Public Projects Nippon Steel expected to finalize U.S. Steel acquisition at $55 per share NMDC Limited reports a 38% drop in Q4 FY24 consolidated net profit RINL to Raise $23 Million Through Land Sales Amid Crisis
The billionaire Gautam Adani-led firm is building the world's largest single-location copper manufacturing factory in Mundra, Gujarat, to reduce India's reliance on imports and aid in the energy transition. The $1.2-billion project is scheduled to begin operations in March and reach a total capacity of one million tonnes (MT) by March 2029, or FY29.
India joins China and other nations in rapidly expanding the production of copper, a metal crucial for the transition away from fossil fuels. Copper is needed for energy-related technologies, including wind, solar photovoltaics (PV), batteries, electric vehicles (EVs), and charging infrastructure.
Kutch Copper Ltd (KCL), a subsidiary of the group's flagship Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL), is setting up a greenfield copper refinery project in two phases to produce refined copper with a capacity of 1 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). For Phase-1, capacity of 0.5 MTPA, KCL achieved financial closure through a syndicated club loan in June 2022.
"Adani wants to become a global leader in the copper business, leveraging the Adani Group's strong position in resource trading, logistics, renewable power, and infrastructure," one of the sources said. "Their aim is to be the world's largest copper smelting complex by 2030."
India's copper production has been unable to meet this demand, and domestic supply disruptions have led to a higher dependency on imported copper. India's imports have been consistently rising for the past five years. For FY23 (April 2022 to March 2023 fiscal), India imported a record 1,81,000 tonnes of copper, while exports plummeted to a record low of 30,000 tonnes, even lower than the Covid pandemic period, according to the data from the government. India is estimated to have consumed 7,50,000 tonnes of copper in FY23 (612 KT in FY22).
Adani group, which is rapidly growing its renewable portfolio, will be a significant consumer of the red metal. Sources said Adani Group's foray into copper manufacturing is a natural extension of its trading, mining, logistics, infrastructure, and manufacturing businesses. "We have a strong international presence to import copper concentrate as India does not produce enough." Kutch Copper will produce copper cathodes and rods as well as valuable byproducts such as gold, silver, selenium and platinum, they said.
Additionally, the integrated complex will produce sulphuric acid, which is a key raw material for manufacturing phosphatic fertilizers, detergents, pharmaceuticals, speciality chemicals, paper and sugar bleaching, and water treatment. India imports roughly two million tonnes of sulphuric acid.
The plant will produce 500,000 tonnes of refined copper per annum in Phase I with byproducts -- nearly 25 tonnes of gold, 250 tonnes of silver, 1.5 MT of sulphuric acid, and 250,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid. The Phase II expansion will increase the refined copper capacity up to 1 MTPA, sources said. "The copper complex construction (Phase I) is in the advanced stages, and the plant is expected to be operational in 2024," the second source said.
On impact of the plant on global prices of copper concentrate, sources said more copper concentrate assets would get operational in the future as a result of India's new exploration and auction policy. Also, upcoming mining projects across the globe are likely to boost the supply of copper concentrate in the medium term, leading to a demand-supply balance.
"Kutch Copper will be one of the most efficient copper smelters in India, with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Adani is striving to increase the share of renewables in the overall energy mix in our quest to be a proponent of 'green copper'," a source said.
On the operational front, the company is engaged in long-term supply agreements for the key raw material- copper concentrate. This, along with strategic location and integrated value chain advantage, will help Kutch Copper to be one of the most sustainable and lowest-cost copper producers in the world.
Also Read : Vedanta acquires two significant mining blocks in Karnataka, Bihar Elon Musk plans to purchase AMD chips for Tesla's AI hardware
The Union government's fiscal deficit touched ₹9.82 lakh crore or 55% of the annual budget target at...
Press Releases 31-Jan-2024
Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japan's leading electric-arc furnace steelmaker, announced a price increa...
Asia 22-Jan-2024
Switch Mobility, Ashok Leyland's electric vehicle division, has received an additional ₹537 crore in...
Mid Corporate 13-Feb-2024
As India ramps up domestic manufacturing across industries, the country's steel makers are not falli...
Announcement 18-Jun-2024
India is unlikely to impose tariffs on exports of low-grade iron ore for now despite rising overseas...
Announcement 01-May-2024
Aurubis AG, Europe's largest copper producer, has entered into a collaboration with Codelco, the wor...
Europe 13-Feb-2024