Hindalco to invest $10 billion to expand operations: Kumar Birla

Expanding Hindalco: On Thursday, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group announced that Hindalco is set to undertake major expansion plans with nearly $10 billion in investments. While addressing the Annual General Meeting of Hindalco, Birla outlined the plans for ongoing near-term projects that will expand the company’s aluminium and copper smelters and the Aditya FRP plant along with a new alumina refinery in Rayagada. 

The company is also planning May Minnette expansion in Novelis along with building India’s largest copper inner groove tube plant at Wagodia, Gujarat.  

“Our metals are foundational elements for progress, specifically progress that is responsible and sustainable. We continue to stay agile so that our metals can continue to enable India’s progress and meet the evolving needs of our customers,” said Birla. 

Birla informed the stakeholders that these projects will be completed by the end of this calendar year and contribute significantly to reducing the reliance on imports of key components in air conditioners. 

Apart from that, Hindalco is also considering a brownfield expansion of nearly 2 lakh tones of its Odisha’s Aditya Aluminium smelter. Birla announced that the power requirements of the plant will be largely met through renewable energy sources. 

For the first quarter of the current financial year (Q1FY25), Hindalco has reported a 25 per cent rise in the net profit to Rs 3,074 crore while the revenue from the business recorded a 15.6 per cent rise, standing at Rs 12,292 crore.

India is among the leading producers of aluminium and as the domestic demand for aluminium continues to surge, the expansion plan of Hindalco will cater to this surge. 

The first 850,000 tonnes of Hindalco’s greenfield alumina refinery in Rayagada, Odisha is likely to be completed by FY27. 

In the meeting, the group chairman also announced that the board of directors have recommended a dividend of Rs 3.5 per share for the financial year 2023-2024.