ACC opens new plant in State

The Rs 350-crore unit has an installed capacity of 1.60 million tonnes per annum

The new plant, inaugurated by Union Minister for Law & Justice M Veerappa Moily, is installed at a cost of Rs 350 crore with a capacity of 1.60 million tonnes of cement per annum.

Briefing reporters, ACC Cement Managing Director Sumit Banerjee said “Karnataka has always been an important state for us.  The new plant is part of a larger expansion plan in the state as this will enhance our production capacity from 5.8 million tonnes to 8.8 million tonnes per annum in the state.”

The new plant will have its own railway siding and will make cement from clinker brought from  company’s Wadi plan in Gulbarga District.

Cement price

Further he said “Cement pricing is an issue of supply and demand. The infrastructure sector is slowly recovering and will result in price rise. The cement consumption in fiscal year 2009-2010 was 9 per cent higher and is expected to grow by 11 per cent in the next financial year.”  ACC Chief Executive South West Ravinder Mohan said “We have a strong network of more than 900 dealers across the state and are planning several initiatives to bridge the  gap between company and consumers.”

When quizzed about the ready mix business ACC Concrete Limited, Banerjee said “We have scaled down the capex on ready mix concrete business and have shut down four plants in Karnataka. We are rethinking business strategies and have restarted one plant in Karnataka. ”

The company is also planning to set up two new plants in the state with a annual capacity of 2.2 million tonnes and 2.3 million tonnes respectively.  ACC also said that its capex for the current fiscal is Rs 1,500 crore and with the commissioning of the projects, company’s production capacity will grow to 29.5 million tonnes per annum from 22.5 million tonnes.