ACC plans Rs 3,000-cr capacity expansion in eastern region

Purulia: Cement major ACC Ltd is planning to invest Rs 3,000 crore to expand its capacity by nearly four million tonnes a year in three eastern region States in the next three years.

According to Vivek Chawla, Chief Executive of East, ACC Ltd, while plans are afoot for expanding capacities at two existing plants – Jamul in Chhattisgarh and Sindri in Jharkhand - the company expects to start construction of a 1.5-million-tonne grinding unit at Kharagpur by next January next.

“We will increase our capacity 10 mt a year from the existing 6 mt a year in three years in the East. This will entail an investment of about Rs 3,000 crore,” Chawla told Business Line here.

The projects will be financed through internal accrual. He was speaking to newspersons to announce launch of a new product line at the company’s only (0.6 mt a year) facility in Madhukunda, located near the Asansol-Durgapur industrial belt, in West Bengal.

ACC acquired the sick facility in the middle of the last decade in a bid to enhance its grip on the regional market.

While Damodar Cement still serves as the company’s only facility in West Bengal, Chawla said, the company is now in discussion with the State Government for setting up a Rs 600-crore grinding unit near Kharagpur.

Discussions are also on with the State Government for acquiring about 150 acres for the proposed project.

“We expect to begin work on the project by January 2014. It will take us at least two years to commission the plant,” Chawla added.

The company today also launched its premium cement brand ACC Plus+ in West Bengal. ACC currently manufactures 30 million tonnes of cement from 17 factories in India.

The company posted a 36 per cent decline in net profit to Rs 262 crore during the April-June 2013 quarter against the same period last year.

The shares of ACC closed 0.75 per cent lower at Rs 954.60 on the BSE on Monday.