India’s aluminium manufacturing base is currently under threat by a surge in imports from aluminium surplus nations
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The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI), the apex body for India’s mining sector, has urged the Finance Ministry to increase the import duty on aluminium to 15 per cent to protect the domestic industry.
Submitting its recommendations to the Ministry for the 2026-27 Union Budget, FIMI called for urgent policy intervention to safeguard the domestic aluminium industry.
India’s aluminium manufacturing base is currently under threat by a surge in imports from aluminium surplus nations driven by global tariff and non-tariff protectionist measures on aluminium, it said.
Investments in pipeline
Stating that the ongoing and planned investments were over ₹1.5 lakh crore to raise domestic aluminium capacity, it said an additional ₹1.6 lakh crore is in the pipeline to raise primary aluminium production to 7.2 million tonnes a year by 2029-30 and around 9 million tonnes by 2032-33. This is in line with the Aluminium Vision Document, released by the Ministry of Mines, earlier this year.
FIMI said these investments are expected to generate over 8 lakh direct and indirect jobs and contribute significantly to India’s broader industrial growth trajectory. “This will significantly enhance the Government’s ‘Viksit Bharat’ vision by building resilient supply chains,” it said.
Aluminium imports have surged in recent years, especially from China, Russia, ASEAN nations and West Asia. Despite sufficient domestic capacity, nearly 55 per cent of India’s aluminium demand in 2025-26 is projected to be met through imports.
FIMI expressed concern over the rising inflow of aluminium scrap. India has become the world’s largest importer of aluminium scrap due to the absence of quality and BIS standards for recycling and scrap imports, resulting in diversion of low-quality scrap chains from regions such as the US, EU, the UAE and UK into the Indian market, it said.
Quality standards for scrap
FIMI urged quality standards on aluminium scrap in line with India’s aluminium vision document, which highlights existing global standards on scrap, and replication of the same in India.
On the other hand, the federation sought reduction in import duty of critical raw materials for aluminium production. Producers face high production costs due to expensive raw materials, an inverted duty structure, various taxes and cesses, electricity duty and high logistics costs, it said.
Though India has the natural advantage of being among the world’s largest holders of bauxite and coal reserves, domestic aluminium production costs remain among the highest globally. Taxes and duties alone account for nearly 17 per cent of production costs, hampering the sector’s growth, FIMI said.
Published on November 20, 2025