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With the introduction of Economic Reforms in the early 1990s, industries in India have seen the light of gradual integration with global players in international markets. The reform process has in part been implemented and as Uptal Das* explains, although the progress is slow, however, future prospects seem to be bright
Amongst the various prospect industries, the aluminium sector has accepted the challenge and so far demonstrated significant success during the past decade. This segment of the national industry has adopted technological advances at a faster pace, utilising both domestic and international resources. This attitude, in conjunction with investors' awareness has prompted the aluminium industry into a substantial expansion over the years by upgrading the existing technology or implementing innovative ideas. Skilled human resources are another strong input and global partnership management has been adopted as a successful tool. Local quality raw material, particularly alumina has placed the industry in an advantageous position and some of the largest global corporations have decided to explore the possibility of increasing national per capita aluminium consumption from a mere 4kg, whilst the developed world level is around 17kg.
INDUSTRY SCENARIO
The Indian aluminium industry mainly comprises five primary producers: Hindalco (Hindalco Industries Ltd); Nalco (National Aluminium Co Ltd); Indal (Indian Aluminium Co Ltd); Balco (Bliarat Aluminium Co Ltd), and Maleo (Madras Aluminium Co Ltd). (See table 1).
It is quite evident from these figures that Hindalco and Nalco are currently the major players, showing reasonable future growth plans. In addition, Hindalco...