Grasim Industries plans to invest additional Rs 6,400 crore to add capacity

Aditya Birla Group's Grasim Industries plans to invest an additional Rs 6,400 crore in expanding its capacity as its existing plants are unable to meet growing demand from the local customers.

Dilip Gaur, managing director of Grasim, said the investment would be made in the speciality fiber business, which would increase its capacity by about 40 per cent in the next two years as the company. 

“We have invested Rs 7,000 crore in the last 10 years and will invest a similar amount in the next two years as demand is fast picking up. We have to divert our exports consignments to the domestic market to cater to the demand,” he said.

The additional capacity will be commissioned at Vilayat plant in Gujarat in two years. Grasim also holds stakes in Ultratech and Aditya Birla Financial Services.

Sushil Agarwal, Grasim's outgoing chief financial officer, said as Grasim mirrors the trend in the economy, they are expecting the government's thrust on the infrastructure sector will help it to boost demand for cement and financial services business in the coming quarters. 

“With the government planning to invest heavily in building infrastructure, it would boost all our business.”

"The government's thrust on infrastructure development like construction of cement concrete roads, metro rail networks, airports, irrigation projects and increase in the pace of execution under the low cost housing program supported strong  volume off-take of cement," the company said in a statement. "All of these are expected to result in sustained demand growth for cement going forward. This augurs well for the industry," it said.