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India aluminium market is expected to have greater scope in coming years. Increasing infrastructural development and automotive production are the key factors driving the market growth.
Aluminium is light weight, silver-white, metallic element, that makes up approximately 7% of earth’s crust. It weighs one third as much as steel.
It is most greedy material due to its positive properties and characteristics like malleable, ductile, easily casted and has excellent corrosion resistance and durability. It is mined in the form of bauxite ore and exists primarily in combination with oxygen as alumina.
India is the fourth largest producer of aluminium in the world with a share of around 5.3% of the global aluminium output. It has nearly 10% of the world’s bauxite reserves and a growing aluminium sector that leverages this.
Demand in the domestic market is expected to grow by 8-10 per cent. By 2020, India is expected to have an installed aluminium capacity of 1.7 to 2 million tonnes per annum.
India’s shares of global aluminium production are hovering around 3%. The technology used by all Indian players is Bayer Hall Heroult.
The energy inputs used are electricity, coal and furnace oil with all plants having their own captive power units for cheap and uninterrupted power supply.
Although, domestic aluminium production exceeds the domestic demand, India imports on an average 15-20 per cent of the total supply of aluminium.
Imports are necessary, due to the shortage of domestically produced ingots. India’s imports of aluminium and products, primarily comprise of unwrought items like ingots, billets, scrap, bars and rods. Imports of primary aluminium products account for less than 10% of domestic consumption.
India also exports aluminium products such as, scrap, powder and flakes, bar rods, foil, pellets, sheets, tubes and pipes.
India has 400 die casting companies, making it one of the major suppliers of die cast parts in global market. Of these, over 25 units produce around 12000 tonnes of die cast parts per year.
Aided by the 1.3 million tons of aluminium production, the Indian industry consumes over 0.28 million tons of die-castings. In general, the die casting market is highly correlative to automobile industry. India’s automobile industry is world’s 5th largest, and is poised to become the third largest by 2020.
Availability of skilled, cheaper labour force and the government incentives for small and medium scale industries, stringent emission norms, and favourable domestic environment for automobile industry is expected to drive die casting market in India.
The introduction of simulation-based castings is one of the key trends that will drive the growth prospects for the global die casting market in the forthcoming years. The simulation-based casting process is used to produce components that are cost-effective, have high-precision, and reliable.
In India, aluminium powder is used in multiple industries for various purposes, including metallurgy, chemicals, paints and pigments, explosives and construction. The India aluminium powder market is being driven by the growing commercial mining and rapid urbanisation in the country.
With rapid technological advancements, the industry has been witnessing several innovations to enhance product-efficiency. To meet the rising consumer demand, manufacturers are continuously enhancing their product portfolio. Key players in the industry are increasingly investing in the research and development activities.
Supply of primary aluminium is in excess as India is one of the largest producers of primary aluminium. However, due to limited scope of value addition within the country, primary aluminium producers export large quantities of primary aluminium products and companies import a sizeable quantity of downstream products.
Aluminum consumption in India at 2.7 kg per capita is much below the global average of 11 kg per capita. Demand for the metal is expected to pick up as the scenario improves for user industries, like power, infrastructure and transportation.
Competition is primarily on quality and price, as being a commodity, differentiation is difficult. However, the recent spate of consolidation has reduced the competitive pressure in the industry.
Further, increasing value addition to aluminium products has helped some companies protect themselves from the high volatilities witnessed in this industry.
There is a threat that copper may replace aluminium in electrical applications, magnesium, titanium and steel may substitute for aluminium in structural and ground transportations due to their better scope of properties in respective applications.
Glass, Polymers, natural fibre materials, paper and steel may substitute for aluminium in packaging.
Aluminium production industry in India is mainly dominated by about five organizations that account for the majority of the country’s GDP:
HINDALCO is the largest organization in Indian aluminium industry holding approximately 40% of the market share. The firm manufacturers a number of aluminium products like primary aluminium, extruded aluminium, aluminium rolled products, alloy wheels, and foil products.
NALCO is yet another leading producer of the aluminium metal in India. Government of India has purchased a stake of about 87.15% in this firm.
Other contributors of aluminium in India includes
Jindal Aluminium is another leading manufacturer of aluminium extruded profiles in India. It has 100000 tonnes per annum installed capacity and 10 aluminium extrusion presses. JAL commands approximately 30% market share in India.
