Hindalco sets December 2027-28 India project commissioning

Hindalco has scheduled the Aditya Alumina Refinery and first 180 KT Aditya smelter line for December 2027, followed by the second smelter line and copper smelter in December 2028, within its first Rs 50,000 crore India expansion programme. Management said it will sequence subsequent investments to keep consolidated net debt to EBITDA below 2 times.

When will Hindalco commission its first India expansion projects?

Hindalco will begin the first Rs 50,000 crore programme with the Pakhajan copper recycling plant in December 2026, followed by the Aditya refinery and first smelter line in December 2027. Management gave the timetable while answering an analyst’s question on when it would provide detailed plans for a further Rs 50,000 crore of India growth opportunities under evaluation.

December 2027 is the first major commissioning point because it includes both the Aditya Alumina Refinery and the first 180 KT Aditya smelter line. The next Aditya smelter line and the copper smelter are scheduled for December 2028. Management did not provide the refinery’s capacity, the second smelter line’s capacity, individual project costs, or expected commercial-production dates.

The programme comes as Hindalco advances projects intended to double upstream capacity and target a fourfold increase in downstream earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, or EBITDA, by FY2030. The source does not assign those capacity and earnings ambitions to a single asset, so the December 2027-28 projects cannot be individually linked to either target.

Which assets are in Hindalco’s first Rs 50,000 crore programme?

Hindalco’s first Rs 50,000 crore India programme includes the Pakhajan recycling plant, Aditya refinery, two Aditya smelter lines and a copper smelter. These projects cover aluminium raw-material processing, primary aluminium production, copper recycling and copper smelting, and management said completing this initial group is its immediate focus.

Hindalco’s operating performance provides the context for the investment rollout. India upstream aluminium generated quarterly EBITDA of Rs 7,009 crore, up 55% year on year, on shipments that rose 1% and revenue that increased 33%. The segment reported EBITDA per tonne of $2,125 and an EBITDA margin of 52% for the quarter.

Copper EBITDA reached Rs 1,673 crore, up 164% year on year, while metal shipments increased 2% to 116 KT. Management said the reported result included higher sulphuric-acid and other by-product realisations as well as certain one-time gains, and estimated a normalised underlying quarterly copper EBITDA of about Rs 1,200 crore.

The difference between reported and normalised copper earnings matters for interpreting the expansion backdrop. Management said sulphuric acid was selling at about Rs 16,000 a tonne in the quarter, versus about Rs 7,000 a tonne in the comparable quarter a year earlier, while quarterly sulphuric-acid volumes were around 300,000 tonnes. It said roughly half of copper EBITDA came from other products, including by-products, and roughly half from copper.

What projects could Hindalco start after the first programme?

Hindalco plans to move next to the Mahan smelter expansion after completing the first project set, subject to environmental-clearance approvals and licensing. Management also identified additional downstream investments and a possible expansion of copper recycling capacity from 50 KT to 150 KT, but gave no execution approval, investment amount or commissioning date for those opportunities.

Management said it would be fair to say that Hindalco could start one additional project about every year and a half. The company has more than Rs 1 lakh crore of growth projects over the next five years, comprising more than Rs 50,000 crore under execution across India businesses and another Rs 50,000 crore under evaluation. Management said it would provide updates as new projects receive approval for execution.

Resource security is another element of the India plan. Hindalco said the Chakla Bandha and Meenakshi mines becoming operational would improve raw-material self-sufficiency and lower production costs, although the call provided specific timing only for Bandha and Chakla. At Bandha, the first box cut had occurred and management expected first coal in the second half of the next financial year.

At Chakla, management expected coal around the middle of the next year. The mine schedules are separate from the December 2027-28 asset commissioning dates, but management linked them to reducing exposure to coal availability during the monsoon. Aluminium production costs rose about 5% from Q1 to Q2, primarily because of coal and calcined petroleum coke prices.

Can Hindalco keep leverage below 2 times during expansion?

Hindalco says it will keep consolidated net debt to EBITDA at around 2 times by phasing new project starts. Consolidated net debt to EBITDA stood at 1.80 times as of September 2026, and management explicitly described the 2-times ceiling as the constraint guiding the cadence of its next investment approvals.

Cash flow and spending both increased during the period. Hindalco reported cash flow of Rs 23,319 crore, up 57% year on year, while capital expenditure rose 83% to Rs 20,719 crore. The company said current-year capital expenditure would be about Rs 12,000 crore, with next year substantially higher and the following year at similarly elevated levels as the expansion projects move forward.

Management did not disclose a rupee capital-expenditure forecast for FY2028 or FY2029 and said it would provide the next-year figure with its February results after completing budgeting. That means the announced commissioning dates establish the broad execution sequence, while the annual cash-outflow profile remains undisclosed.

Management also set out separate leverage paths for the group’s businesses. It said Novelis was expected to reach about 4 times leverage in the fourth quarter before a two-year deleveraging cycle to between 2.5 and 2.8 times. The India business, which management described as currently negative net debt, is expected to move to 1.0 to 1.5 times as growth capital expenditure rises.

Conclusion

Hindalco has provided a dated rollout for its first Rs 50,000 crore India expansion programme: Pakhajan recycling in December 2026, the Aditya refinery and first 180 KT smelter line in December 2027, and the second smelter line plus copper smelter in December 2028. The sequence spans aluminium and copper and is designed, according to management, to fit within a consolidated leverage level of around 2 times EBITDA.

The next items to watch are execution approvals for the Mahan smelter expansion, downstream projects and the proposed increase in copper recycling from 50 KT to 150 KT. Management plans to disclose its next-year capital-expenditure number with February results, while first coal from Bandha in the second half of the next financial year and Chakla coal around the middle of the next year remain relevant to aluminium costs.