Vedanta’s USD 5 billion capex boosts India’s industrial & energy self-reliance

THEBUSINESSBYTES BUREAU

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 17, 2025

In a significant move, Vedanta Limited, India’s leading conglomerate in critical minerals, energy transition metals, energy, and technology, announced a major milestone — surpassing USD 5 billion in capital expenditure within India. This achievement comes as part of the company’s broader planned investment of USD 8.5 billion in the country. The ongoing investments focus on expanding capacity, achieving backward integration, and securing access to key raw materials. These efforts aim to strengthen India’s march toward resource ‘atmanirbharta’ and develop a robust industrial foundation resilient to global market fluctuations.

Vedanta owns and operates some of India’s most strategic and large-scale natural resource assets. Among its operations are the world’s largest single-location aluminium smelter, the world’s largest underground zinc mine, the world’s largest zinc-lead smelter at a single site, and India’s largest onshore oil field. Over the last two fiscal years alone, the company has invested approximately USD 2.5 billion domestically to increase production capacity, enhance backward integration, adopt advanced technologies, and expand its portfolio of value-added products.

In the first quarter of the current financial year, Vedanta’s subsidiary Hindustan Zinc announced a USD 1.4 billion investment as part of the initial phase of its board-approved capacity doubling strategy. This investment includes the development of a 250 KTPA integrated smelting complex in Udaipur, along with expansion of associated mines and processing facilities.

Vedanta has been a key player in ensuring the domestic availability of vital resources such as oil and gas, aluminium, zinc, silver, lead, ferrochrome, steel, and nickel, which are essential for India’s infrastructure, defence, aerospace, automotive, high-tech manufacturing, and technology sectors. The company’s aluminium division alone serves nearly half of India’s total demand, and it is actively broadening its value-added product offerings to meet rising needs in renewable energy, automotive, aerospace, and other high-growth industries.

In the zinc segment, Vedanta maintains a dominant 77 percent share of India’s domestic primary market and fulfils around 10 percent of the country’s silver demand, with all sales retained within national borders. Its oil and gas operations produce approximately one-quarter of India’s hydrocarbon output and have delivered around 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent since inception. The company’s steel production is entirely directed toward domestic consumption, while Vedanta remains India’s sole producer of nickel, with 80 percent of its production sold within the country.

In light of recent shifts in global trade policies and tariffs, Vedanta emphasized the critical importance of securing domestic access to energy transition metals such as aluminium, zinc, silver, and oil and gas at internationally competitive prices. According to the company, ensuring the availability of these resources will be vital to advancing India’s public infrastructure, renewable energy expansion, and national defence capabilities.

“In an era of rising resource nationalism, Vedanta is committed to ensuring India’s growth is powered by its own resources,” said a Vedanta spokesperson. “Our integrated operations, scale, and sustained investments enable us to meet domestic demand with world-class products, while protecting the economy from volatile global trade dynamics and geopolitical uncertainties. This is not just about self-reliance — it’s about securing India’s long-term strategic and economic future.”

Vedanta’s vision, articulated through the call to produce “Desh ki Zarooraton ke Liye” (for the needs of the nation), echoes India’s broader push for economic sovereignty. By aligning its operations with the national ‘atmanirbharta’ agenda, Vedanta seeks to transform the current global trade challenges into long-term competitive advantages. Through its scale, integration, and strategic investments, the company aims to position India as a resource-secure, sustainable, and globally competitive economy.