Aluminium industry targets 3 sectors for growth

Expressing confidence that the growing Indian economy would drive aluminium consumption, the Aluminium Association of India on Monday said it had targetted automobiles, power sector and the packaging industry to boost growth.

"The three main areas are automobile, electrical wiring and food packaging to drive growth for aluminium and boost per capita consumption to international levels of 20 kg from 600 grams in India," AAI president C Venkataramana told reporters on the sidelines of the national conference on 'Global initiatives and Indian opportunities in aluminium in automobiles,' in Bangalore.

India's per capita aluminium consumption was 600 gms as against 2.9 kg in China, 35 kg in the United States and 45 kg in Japan, he said.

Venkataramana said the domestic aluminium consumption stood at 700,000 tonnes last year and added that production would increase as and when consumption added up.

Though the aluminium sector was a capital-intensive industry, there were enough investors waiting to invest in aluminium plants, provided they had consumers for the product, he added.