The Adani Kutch Copper plant, a new smelter owned by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, commenced operations this week in Gujarat, marking a significant milestone for India’s metals industry.
The launch comes after multiple delays, primarily due to a global shortage of copper feedstock, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
The facility, with an initial capacity of 500,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), is part of a broader initiative to reduce India’s reliance on imported copper.
The plant was originally scheduled to start in 2024, but faced setbacks as smelter expansions worldwide exacerbated the shortage of raw materials.
“The Kutch Copper smelter is now operational and is working towards achieving peak capacity,” a spokesperson for Adani Enterprises confirmed.
Adani Enterprises launched the first phase of the project in March last year, with ambitions to expand capacity to one million tonnes (mt) by the end of fiscal year 2029.
Currently, raw materials are being fed into the plant, though it is anticipated that reaching full operational capacity could take up to 18 months, significantly longer than the typical two-to-three-month ramp-up period for such facilities.
At full scale, the smelter would require approximately 1.6mt of concentrated copper ore annually.
The challenge of securing copper concentrates has become a global issue for smelters, intensified by the influx of new plants and a consequent decline in processing margins.
The increase in smelting capacity is partly due to new integrated plants in mining operations in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have reduced the availability of concentrates for other smelters.
Furthermore, the rapid expansion of stand-alone smelters that procure their raw materials from the open market — including the Adani plant and several significant operations in China, such as the new 500,000tpa copper smelter launched by Tongling Nonferrous Metals earlier this year — has also contributed to the shortage.
The Kutch Copper plant’s operationalisation is seen as a crucial step in enhancing India’s domestic copper production capacity and aligns with the country’s goal of strengthening its industrial and resource infrastructure.
Industry analysts note that the extended ramp-up period reflects current market dynamics and the global competition for raw materials, with Adani adapting its investment strategies to navigate these challenges while maintaining long-term expansion goals.
