Vedanta is looking to go beyond manufacturing in India and aid development of user industries for aluminium as well as semiconductors and glass, which it will start making in the country soon.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for the Vedanta Aluminium Park at Jharsuguda on Thursday. The company is also in talks with the state government to set up an electronics cluster to manufacture television sets, smartphones, laptops and other electronic items which use semiconductor and glass.
Anil Agarwal, chairman, Vedanta, told FE that Odisha has the potential for electronics manufacturing factories, and Vedanta can be a supplier of raw material —semiconductors and glass from its facility coming up in Gujarat along with Foxconn. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Make in Odisha Conclave’22.
“We are setting up a semiconductor and glass factory in Gujarat which will make the raw material that can be used by car companies, laptop manufacturers, cellular companies and TV making companies. Big factories of the same can be set up for manufacturing of these in Odisha. We are in talks with the government of Odisha for the same, which will also boost employment generation in the state,” he said.
He said there is global interest from companies to set up these facilities in India and Odisha is in a “sweet-spot with its progressive and industry friendly policies”.
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Vedanta is setting up the Vedanta Aluminium Park, a joint venture with the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation, where companies can set up manufacturing units and draw molten aluminium from its smelter at Jharsuguda to manufacture their products.
“I would like the state to develop into an aluminium parts hub. Increasingly, industries are converting into aluminium — from railway wagons to aeroplanes using more aluminium, or cars which use around 33 parts of aluminium. All of this is imported in India. We would like all of that to be produced around us, and the aluminium park today can house around 150 user industries,” Agarwal said.
The company is promising reduced time and working capital, technical and after-sales support, SEZ for export-oriented industries and better environmental and carbon footprint.
Vedanta’s aluminium smelter at Jharsuguda has a capacity of 1.75 million tonne per annum. Spread over 253 acres, the Vedanta Aluminium Park will be one of India’s largest metal parks.
“Over the years, Vedanta has invested over `1 trillion and created over five lakh direct and indirect livelihood opportunities in the state;now the Vedanta Aluminium Park will bring more downstream players to Odisha to maximise value addition and further deepen the industrialisation in the state,” Agarwal said. He is also in talks with the Odisha government to set up a digital university to address large scale migration of Indian students going abroad for studies.
