With HC refusing Sterlite reopening, India to rely on more copper imports

With the Madras High Court refusing to allow the reopening of the Sterilte plant in Thoothukudi, India, which was already importing more copper since the plant was shut in 2018, is expected to import even more copper.

New Delhi: Following the Madras High Court's verdict upholding the state government's order of closing Vedanta's Sterlite Copper Smelter Plant in Thoothukudi, the nation is most likely to increase its import of copper.

The Tamil Nadu Government had sealed the plant in May 2018 after 13 people were killed in anti-Sterlite protests as police opened fire.

Vedanta had approached the High Court seeking direction to quash the state government's Sterlite closure order.

However, a bench of High Court comprising Justices TS Sivagnanam and V Bhavani Subbaroyan rejected the plea filed by the Vedanta to reopen the copper smelter unit.

While the major political parties including Tamil Nadu's ruling AIADMK, opposition DMK, Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko's MDMK (which played a crucial role in anti-Sterlite protests) have welcomed the move, the development is also expected to have an adverse affect on copper production.

The Sterlite unit at Thoothukkudi had a capacity of four lakh tonne copper production. After the closure of the Sterlite copper smelter unit in Thoothukudi, the copper production has declined to around half of the quantity when compared with Financial Year 2018 and 2017.

Read:Madras HC dismisses Vedanta's plea to reopen Sterlite copper plant

The country produced just 452.7 thousand tonnes of refined copper in FY 2019. Experts predict it would go further down in FY 2020 as the production would touch around 410 thousand tonnes.

At the same time, in FY 2017 and 2018, the refined copper production was 848 thousand tonnes and 799 thousand tonnes respectively. Hence, it is evident that after the closure of Sterlite, the copper production in India has come down by 40-50% in the past and current FYs.

Due to this dip in production, India, which imported 44,245 tonnes of refined copper in 2018 had purchased 92,290 in 2019 from other nations. This also reflected in the export. India's refined copper export in 2018-2019 was just 47,917 tonnes. However, it was 3,78,555 tonnes in 2017 according to official data.

Though Hindustan Copper, Hindalco and other small companies are producing copper, after the closure of Sterlite, India has spent around Rs 14,000 crore in Forex to import refined copper.

Read:India turns refined copper importer after 18 years: Report