India's NALCO alumina output seen normal by Monday

BHUBANESWAR, India, Aug 1 (Reuters) - India's National Aluminium Co Ltd is likely to resume normal production at its alumina refinery from Monday as coal deliveries are due to arrive at the weekend, its chairman, C.R. Pradhan, said. Output at the refinery had fallen to 1,800-2,000 tonnes a day from the normal 4,000 tonnes because of a coal shortage, but NALCO is expected to receive about 10,000 tonnes of coal within 24 hours, Pradhan told Reuters on Friday. "As the coal stocks are set to improve further, we hope we may be back to normal production from Monday,", he said. NALCO had scaled back operations at the alumina refinery at Damanjodi in eastern Orissa state last Saturday. The coal shortage forced the firm to shut two of three operational boilers for about three days. "The operation of the second boiler started Thursday and we are going to start the third boiler Friday," a company official, who did not want to be identified, said from Damanjodi. He said alumina output had fallen by 14,000 tonnes in the past week.