Speaking at the World Non-Ferrous Conference 2016, Mr. P. Ramnath, CEO – Copper Business, Vedanta Industries – stated, “Indian market is poised to take off in copper industry. Installed domestic capacity of copper is currently little below 1 million tonnes per annum. Total demand for primary copper in India is 650000 tonnes per annum. Domestic manufacturers are fully capable of feeding domestic demand. We are bullish on growth of copper demand”.
 

However, Mr. P. Ramnath from Vedanta mentioned the anomaly when it comes to demand and supply of copper in the country. Vedanta CEO Mr. Ramnath stated that one-third of the total demand for copper is met by imports, which is coming in mainly due to the FTAs and other reasons and domestic producers such as Hindalco and Vedanta are exporting about 50 per cent of their copper production.
 

Mr. Ramnath stated that the government has to address the inverted duty issue. He further mentioned that the domestic industry doing its best in terms of competitiveness, by producing best quality at best price. However, the industry looks forward to support from the government for the copper industry.
 

Also speaking at the session were Mr. Rob Smith, Senior Research Analyst, Wood Mackenzie; Mr. Shankhadeep Mukherjee, Senior Consultant, CRU International and Dr. Biswajit Nag, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.