ACC to ramp up annual cement capacity to 30 mt

Cement major ACC is planning to ramp up its annual production capacity to 30 million tonnes by the end of this financial year through brownfield projects.

“We plan to achieve a growth of 12 per cent in our installed capacity of around 27 million tonnes at present to 30 million tonnes,” ACC managing director Sumit Banerjee told Business Standard.

The domestic cement industry will add around 70 million tonnes of fresh capacity during 2010-11 to the consolidated current capacity of 250 million tonnes.

“The per capita consumption of cement is quite low in India compared not only to developed economies, but also developing countries such as China, Malaysia and Thailand,” he added.

Against the per capital annual consumption of cement in China at 1,000 kg, India fares poorly at 150 kg. The industry is growing by over 10 per cent.

Uttar Pradesh cement market is pegged at 20 million tonnes annually and is among top two cement consumers besides Maharashtra. At least 70 per cent of UP’s cement requirement is met with supplies from other states, mainly Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

“The low consumption pattern shows that cement is yet to find full flow in the country, especially in rural India,” he lamented.

However, he sounded optimistic of the future of the cement industry, especially in the backdrop of massive infrastructure funding being talked about for the current and successive plan periods.

It is being estimated that India would need an investment of almost 1 trillion dollars on infrastructure during the 12 th Plan (2012-17), double of what is being projected for the current Plan.

Banerjee maintained the domestic cement industry was well prepared to meet the future requirements and there would not be any need to import.

He was in town for a seminar on ‘Concrete Road Projects: Focusing on City Roads, Rural Roads & Technology’ organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the UP government and ACC.

“ACC is aiming to promote new applications of cement other than real estate, such as concrete road, tiles, pre-cast cement products etc,” he added.