Adani Enterprises, the incubation platform for new businesses of the Gautam Adani-led group, announced in March that it has incorporated a company called Kutch Copper Ltd to manufacture copper cathodes and rods among other products.
Prior to this, Kumar was vice president of Vedanta Zinc International and headed its Gamsberg project in South Africa.
The Adani Group did not respond to a query from ET till press time Tuesday.
On a professional network site, Kumar announced that after working outside India for almost 17 years, he will now relocate to Ahmedabad to take up this new assignment as the chief executive of the group’s copper business. “This will be a great opportunity to lead the upcoming copper business at Kutch Copper Ltd (Mundra Copper) with the primary aim of fulfilling our nation’s call of Atma Nirbhar Bharat,” he said in the post.
In the last few years, the Adani Group has been diversifying into new areas and moving away from the cyclical commodities business. The group’s decision to enter the copper business is a deviation from this strategy, aimed to tap the growing demand for refined copper globally and a demand-supply mismatch in India.
India was an exporter of refined copper till a few years ago, but the closure of Vedanta’s Tuticorin plant disrupted local availability. India’s imports of refined copper more than tripled from 44,245 tonnes to 152,000 tonne in FY18-FY20, while exports slid 90% from 380,000 tonne to 39,959 tonnes. Analysts believe the commodity is in a super cycle and may continue to see an increase in demand in the post-Covid world.
At the annual general meetings of the Adani Group companies on Monday, chairman Gautam Adani said: “I believe that our real phase of accelerated growth is just beginning. This is because our group benefits greatly from having a portfolio of companies with several strategic adjacencies that will fuel our future growth in a diverse range of sectors.”
