Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd is setting up a second manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu with an investment of around Rs 800 crore.
Company spokesperson R Gurumoorthy said the greenfield project was coming up at Ariyalur on 175 acres of land. The company already has a four million tonne unit at Dalmiapuram near Tiruchy. The capacity of the Ariyalur project would be 2.5 million tonne per annum and is almost ready.
This apart, it is also setting up a 27-Megawatt captive power plant in Tamil Nadu with an investment of around Rs 150 crore. The cement maker recently inaugurated a Rs 750-crore facility at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh.
The Tamil Nadu plant will predominantly cater to local and Kerala markets. However, if the freight costs are favourable, the company may look at placing the products in other adjoining markets/states, said Gurumoorthy.
According to him, the growth and demand for cement in South is higher by around two per cent and likely to continue in future as well.
The company was targeting a 10 per cent market share in Andhra Pradesh and is in the process of strengthening its position to achieve an 18 per cent share in Tamil Nadu in the next one year, he added.
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According to industry sources, the cement sector reported an eight per cent growth in the south in terms of consumption for the nine-month period ended December 2008. The production during the period saw a growth of seven per cent.
The growth was mainly led by various infrastructure and social projects like affordable housing and irrigation taken up by various governments in the southern states.