Century Plyboards plans Rs 1,200 cr investment by 2012

Century Plyboards (I), a plywood maker and cement producer, today said it plans to invest Rs 1,200 crore by 2012 mainly to expand cement manufacturing capacity.

"We will continue to grow in the plywood segment but our investment in the two years will be concentrated in the cement sector in which total Rs 1,200 crore investment has been lined up," Century Plyboards joint managing director Sanjay Agarwal told PTI.

"We have already spent some Rs 250 crore toward the projects to enhance clinker capacity, grinding units in Assam and Bihar and power plant," he said.

The cement making capacity of the company will be 4.2 million tonnes per annum from one million tonnes now.

Agarwal said the expansion of cement will be executed by subsidiary Cement Manufacturing Company Ltd and it will enhance clinker capacity by another 1.75 million tonnes and set up 1.6 million tonnes grinding units each in Guwahati and Kahalgoan (Bihar).

The funding will be in a mix of 3:1 debt equity ratio and entire equity will be generated from internal accruals, Agarwal said.

Asked how big would be the cement business to the company, Agarwal said in 2012-13 the company should register a topline of around Rs 2,400-2,500 crore and contributions from plyboard and cement will be equal.

In 2009-10, plyboards registered a business of Rs 808 crore and cement generated Rs 440 crore revenue.

Century which has also forayed into logistics business has invested another Rs 60 crore to add 80,000 square metres of space to one lakh square metres for Container Freight Station at Falta, West Bengal.

"The new facility is almost ready and will be operational from current quarter," Agarwal said.