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1 Laying the Foundation Stone

Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) was established in 1965 as a Public Sector undertaking in Korba, Chhattisgarh. It was conceived by India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, due to its futuristic valuable contribution towards the development of the nation. Aluminium, the wonder metal, is vital for the nation’s growth and progress. Realising the importance of this metal, an aluminium complex with a production capacity of 1 Lakh tonne/annum by the name of Bharat Aluminium Company Limited along with a power generating facility of 270 MW was established.

Later the organisation was acquired by Vedanta Group. This strategic acquisition of BALCO in 2001 by Vedanta, led to a turnaround of an unprecedented scale and BALCO became one of India’s privatisation success stories. The Vedanta group has a 51% stake in the company, and the Government of India has a 49% stake. Today, BALCO stands tall as India’s iconic producer of a vital raw material for the country—Aluminium.

Vedanta Limited is the world’s 6th largest diversified natural resources conglomerate with business operations in India, South Africa, Namibia, and Australia. It is a leading producer of Oil and Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, Aluminium and Power. Vedanta contributes 1% towards India’s GDP, as per IFC.

2 The Story of Success

BALCO has grown by leaps and bounds throughout its journey of 56 years since its inception. Producing 20% of the country’s Aluminium today, BALCO’s initial capacity was 96,000 tonnes/annum (TPA) till 2004. This was followed by 155% volume ramp up to 245,000 TPA in FY 09 and by 30% increment to 325,000 TPA in FY 14 with current capacity of 575,000 TPA.

The heart of the smelter i.e. Potline was started with Soderberg technology with 60 kA current in 1965. In 2002, BALCO took a giant leap in switching over to Hall Heroult process with 100 kA current. At this stage, Chinese non-graphitised anodes were used which yielded a Current Efficiency of 93%. Currently, BALCO is running with fully graphitised anodes with Current Amperage of 340 kA and current efficiency of 95% with a specific energy consumption of 12,862 kWh/MT which is on par with global standards.

The power generation capacity at BALCO has also reached 1740 MW from 270 MW at the time of its establishment. The organisation has also created plenitude of employment opportunities for people from the state and across the nation. BALCO’s turnaround has created a 360° multiplier effect for the country. BALCO’s growth story has resulted in the economic progress of the regional business community comprising over 5,000 downstream businesses.

BALCO believes that privatisation has the ability to unlock value and realise synergies for businesses in a way that no other means can create. This is proven by many accounts in the past. The magnitude of the turnaround was such that its impact created ripple effects that went beyond the sphere of business to have an effect on the community.

BALCO seamlessly inculcated the values and ethos of Vedanta, with the takeover proving to be a win–win for both. While Vedanta benefited from the growth prospects and commercial extraction of BALCO’s aluminium, post-acquisition, BALCO derived tremendous value that infused the once-ailing public giant with a new lease of life. The success on a mammoth scale was possible due to Vedanta’s wealth of experience and learnings that it acquired over the years from its endeavours in the metals and energy spaces that transformed businesses and lives the world over.

BALCO, one of India’s pioneering Aluminium producers, has always been a front-runner in India’s Aluminium production at the global scale. It is also humbling that BALCO has been instrumental in bringing its areas of operations in rural Chhattisgarh, which has impacted the region appreciably and has introduced multidimensional progress to the remote areas in the vicinity by bringing them into the developmental economic mainstream of the country.

3 Making India Self-reliant

BALCO’s aluminium production assists the country’s tread towards self-reliance. BALCO provided Hard Alloys to ISRO between the period of 2006–2014 for defence purposes. The Aluminium sector plays a vital role in nation’s economy and is a sector of strategic importance to the country due to its role in energy security, national defence, aerospace, automobile, infrastructure, electricity transmission and distribution, and many other ancillary applications. The metal also has a significant role in Union Government’s forward looking and visionary schemes of Make in India, Smart Cities, Power for All, etc.

BALCO, the only aluminium industry in Chhattisgarh, has contributed significantly in empowering the state and the country through its 56 years of developmental journey. In the two decades after disinvestment, BALCO contributed about 10,000 Cr to State Exchequer and provided employment to 15,000 people directly and indirectly. BALCO has created economic opportunities worth thousands of Crores of rupees in the state.

4 Stride Towards Excellence

BALCO has always adopted state-of-the-art technology in its processes. Catering to the needs of Defence and Space Research since 1980, the Company has firmly established itself as a front-runner among the producers of Aluminium sheets and plates.

The molten metal (Aluminium) is fabricated into saleable products by adapting different processes. Fabrication Strategic Business Unit (SBU) is broadly divided into three units operating as separate profit centres—Cast House, Foundry, and Sheet Rolling Shop.

Many firsts as an Organisation

  • First to produce Alloy Rods for conductors used in power transmission industry

  • First to roll material for Aerospace in the Country

  • First to produce largest Billet of diameter—800 mm, length—6 MT

  • First to set up the widest Hot Rolling Mill

Wire Rods—BALCO is one of the leading wire rod manufacturers in the world. Our mills are fully equipped with in-line degassing and filtration systems to ensure good internal metal quality and cleanliness. Alloy Rods, EC Rods, and Flip Coils all are covered in our portfolio with the very first time production of T4 Rods in October 2021.

Ingots—BALCO produces Primary Aluminium ingots that are re-melted to produce a variety of end products covering the entire spectrum of aluminium applications using the state of the art technology.

Primary Foundry Alloys—BALCO supplies Primary Foundry alloys (PFA) in many industry segments. The casting facility has metal treatment facilities of Degassing, Metal Filtration Unit, and Vertical Chill Casting Technology for AlSi. PFA facility has started from 2018 in Cast House 3 and is currently having a capacity of 90 kTPA. First P1020 T-Ingots were developed in Foundry in April 2020.

5 Milestones over Four Decades and Journey or Rolled Products

BALCO is equipped to deliver high quality rolled products in segments with applications in automobiles, insulations, bus bars, power projects, electrical, packaging, etc.

  • BALCO is first to set up the widest Hot Rolling Mill in India

  • BALCO is first to roll material for Aerospace in the Country

  • BALCO specialises in Hot Rolled Products

  • BALCO has one of the oldest mills in the world: Technology from Russia, USA, and Italy

Initially, in 1981–82, Hot Rolling Mill * Old cold rolling Mill (NKMZ, Russia) was inducted in BALCO which was followed by induction of Caster and New Cold Rolling Mill (NCRM, Fata Hunter Italy) in 2001. Addressing the market needs pre-heating furnace was modified in the year 2019. In the year 2020, AA3105 was produced first time through Strip Caster (FATA Hunter Machinery) which was developed by in-house improvements. In the year 2021, manufacturing of circles was done for the first time and 3105 and 19,600 alloy series have also been manufactured through caster route in the same year.

BALCO supports critical emerging sectors like electric vehicles, modern construction and other ancillary segments, as Aluminium is a metal of endless possibilities. BALCO is providing impetus to the vision of ‘Make in India’, by leveraging the potential of the entire aluminium value chain, from mining to end usage. BALCO continuously strives to adopt advanced and updated technologies and processes to maximise efficiency. On the same lines, several digitalisation initiatives have been integrated in operational areas. BALCO has adopted image and video analytics, contextual analytics, situational awareness, safety, and security risk analysis that is available in real-time with accuracy.

At the same time, BALCO-manufactured value-added aluminium products that found application in several projects of national interest, scientific innovation, and strategic significance like long-range missiles and space exploration equipment.

BALCO is also deploying industry-leading digital technologies, creating super alloys to support the country’s emerging applications of aluminium to make aluminium usage comparable to those of the developed countries in the world. In developed countries, aluminium has over 3,000 applications whereas it is limited to only 300 applications in India. Thus, BALCO is dedicated to explore the enormous scope to enhance the aluminium usage in India, as the country’s per capita aluminium consumption is a meagre 2.2 kg against the world average of 10 and 25 kg for China with a comparable population. Germany ranks first with per capita aluminium consumption of 42.1 kg followed by Taiwan at 33.3 kg.

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and Aluminium is one of the key growth sectors for India which has a huge potential to contribute towards the wealth creation of the nation.

6 Towards the Betterment of Society

The robustness that BALCO’s financials achieved under Vedanta opened up a bunch of opportunities for the community in the vicinity. Vedanta’s priority for a holistic development through the empowerment of its stakeholders triggered an investment of $17.63 million in community initiatives alone. It introduced social welfare programmes and health facilities and created employment opportunities for the BALCO community that comprised of 123 villages.

Presently, Vedanta runs an institute of skills in Korba which benefits over 9,000 students from Chhattisgarh. This is a one-of-its-kind institute of skills that provides technical education to the rural youth to prepare them for a vocation that allows them to become financially self-reliant.

BALCO also runs a Cancer Hospital at Raipur with complete support from the government. The government has always been very proactive and supportive of the industries to sustain their business and grow further. BALCO received complete support from the government for continuous operations and retaining the employment as well.

As is the characteristic of any sustainable venture, the brand has undertaken several development projects under the themes of sustainable livelihood, women empowerment, healthcare, education, afforestation, water conservation, and agriculture programmes benefiting over 1,50,000 people in the region and beyond. The communities are witnessing continuous and commensurate development along with BALCO’s growth.

7 Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Initiatives

BALCO is credited with planting over 41 Lakh trees in the surrounding regions. To create awareness about the importance of water conservation, the company implemented rainwater harvesting techniques in the plants and in the township. Towards this purpose, an array of modern equipment was installed, which resulted in zero effluent discharge into the water bodies. In bauxite mining areas, there is a special focus to promote the regional flora and fauna.

As BALCO grows in strength, it has been able to explore India’s demographic dividend that currently needs to be capitalised for the realisation of our vision of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy. We truly believe that despite the mammoth challenges that industries across the world are faced with, BALCO is on the right path to experience new heights of social, sustainable, and economic growth as we move from one milestone to the next.

BALCO’s 1200 and 540 MW Power Plants have undertaken various innovative and improvement projects for energy conservation. In the year 2020–21 the specific water consumption of 1200 MW and 540 MW power plants was 2.1 and 1.95 m3/MWh respectively. A solar plant of 33 KW has been established to promote renewable energy. The plants have also ensured 100% utilisation of ETP discharge water and almost 8000 Quality Circle and Kaizen projects have been implemented. In its other energy saving endeavours at all the areas of operations, BALCO has also reduced its power consumption in its potline 1 of its smelter as per the global benchmark and has become the best potline in India and Gulf countries in its power consumption and hence reducing its carbon footprint.

BALCO has been the recipient of various awards and accolades for its environmental conservation efforts. BALCO secured the coveted top spot with the highest Energy Saving Certificates, a testimony of its continuous endeavours towards energy conservation for business and environment sustainability. BALCO has won the Golden Peacock Award for Energy Efficiency-2021, ‘CII Energy Efficiency Award’, and ‘Golden Peacock Sustainability Award’. The company has also bagged ‘International Green Apple Award’ ‘CII Energy Excellence Award’, ‘Sustainable Business of the year Award’, ‘National Award for Excellence in Energy Management’ and ‘Energy and Environment Global Environment Award’ in recent years.

8 Summary

BALCO is sincerely committed towards the goal of maximising its efforts in the direction for the betterment of the society and environment. Through our continuous endeavour, we aim to achieve the larger goal of creating a sustainable future for the generations to come and contribute to the expeditious development of the nation. BALCO has been an early adopter of smart technologies for heightened operational efficiencies, which further bolsters the culture of energy optimisation, safety, and productivity that we have meticulously fostered across the organisation. We are dedicatedly to driving the Environment, Social, and Governance dimensions of sustainability for building a greener tomorrow and, therefore, are actively exploring innovations that can help reduce our carbon footprint as early as possible in the creation process.