India, July 7 -- India faces a paradox of its own making. It is the second-largest primary aluminium producers, which is a point of pride. However, this strength primary aluminium production has not resulted in resilience downstream. In fact, the opposite is true.

Around 10,000 medium and small-scale and micro enterprises that make up India's downstream aluminium sector-turning primary metal into extrusions, rolled products, foil, cables, tubes, and components for industries like construction and automotive-are being hurt by the pricing practices of the upstream producers they depend on.

This practice is known as import-parity pricing. It means that India's primary aluminium producers price their metal to domestic buyers as if it were i...