International Copper Association India (ICA India) in association with Hindalco Industries Ltd and Vedanta Ltd organized the India Copper Forum recently in Mumbai. The event brought together experts and thought leaders from the ministry and copper fraternity to congregate and deliberate on opportunities and challenges faced by the industry.

Copper today is a 8 billion US dollar industry in India having created 50,000 direct and indirect jobs and growing at a CAGR 5-7% per annum. India has a huge growth potential in copper consumption for the next 20-25 years as the government increases focus on smart cities, rapid urbanization and investments in infrastructure.

India is expected to be the 6th largest copper market by 2020 with major consumption sectors being - Electrical, Transport and Telecommunications. It is a strategic sector where copper demands is and will be from smart cities, power, transmission and defence.

Total global consumption for copper is 26.7 million MT out of which India contributes 4% of the this total as of 2014. In India we saw the total consumption of copper at 1.16mn tons in 2014. Out of this wire rod copper consumption was at 695KT and tube and strips copper consumption at 433 KT in 2014.

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