Jairaj Singh, the chief executive of the extrusions division, will now replace Ray at the company's largest division. However, international trading will be headed by Shankar Ray, who was earlier in charge of alumina chemicals export, as an additional responsibility.

A senior Indal official, while confirming the developments, said: "We have a capable second line of management. Hence, we did not feel the need to replace Ray with executives from outside."

Amitava Ray, who headed Indal's sheets business, recycling and international trading, has played a crucial role in the company over the last three-and-a-half years as the divisions under his charge contributes over 50 per cent to the company's turnover.

Singh, who will take charge from Amitava Ray next week, will be replaced at the extrusions division by his former deputy Reggie Paul. Singh will have an uphill task as Indal's margins have been under pressure following the continued slide in international aluminium prices.

The company also has to contend with another major problem at hand as its plans to outsource around 60mw of power from Jindal Tractabel to reactivate part of its idle 72,000 tonne per annum smelter in Belgaum, Karnataka, has got delayed.

The disparate customs duty structure has also affected Indal adversely and last year it had to temporarily close down its 25,000 tonne recycling plant in Taloja, Maharashtra. The scrap recycling plant is the only one of its kind in India and has yet to operate at its full capacity.

As Indal has now become a net buyer of metal, and will have to import to meet its requirements, increasing its exports is also essential to avail of duty-free imports.

However, as an aftermath of the Asian meltdown, there has been a significant lack of demand from most of its export markets which has affected not only Indal but all downstream producers.