India court clears way for Vedanta smelter restart

India's Supreme Court has cleared the way for diversified copper producer Vedanta to reopen its Sterlite Copper smelter in Tamil Nadu, after it refused to stay an order for its closure by the provincial government.

The interim ruling "paves the way for the Sterlite Copper plant to reopen" and the company will now file an application to environmental regulator to operate the smelter, a Vedanta spokesman said. The plant has a production capacity of 1.1mn t/yr of sulphuric acid.

India's environmental court the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered the restart of the smelter on 17 December, subject to certain environmental protection measures. The Tamil Nadu government appealed this ruling.

Indian sulphuric acid buyers are upbeat on the restart of the smelter. Some market participants now anticipate that a April start-up could be realistic.

The impact of the Sterlite Copper smelter's shutdown on the domestic sulphuric acid market has been significant because of limited supply options in the region. The operator declared a force majeure on sulphuric acid deliveries following the closure, which pushed consumers into the international spot market for not only sulphuric acid but also sulphur and finished fertilizer products.

Indian sulphuric acid imports reached 1.4mn t in 2018, according to Argus analysis, up by 59pc from 2017.