The A V Birla group flagship Grasim Industries will invest Rs 500 crore over two years to ramp up its cement capacity, including that of ailing subsidiary Shree Digvijay Cement, to over 15 million tonne.
The company has just completed the first round of de-bottlenecking of its cement units, which has seen its capacity increase from 12 million tonne to 12.92 million tonne. By next year, the capacity will rise by another one million tonne.
Grasim, which had been looking at pruning its cement brands portfolio, has now decided to focus on just three national brands: Birla Plus, Birla Super and Birla Ready Mix. All its other regional brands will be phased out, the company said.
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The company will set up three captive power plants of 46 mw, 23 mw and 12.5 mw. The company has also increased its blended cement business, which now forms one-third of its grey cement sales. The company said even the ready-mix concrete business is showing improved performance.
Meanwhile, Grasim today turned in a 40 per cent jump in net profit after taxes but before exceptional items for the 2002-03 fiscal at Rs 542 crore from 386 crore in the previous year.
The exceptional items mainly the Rs 208 crore hit Grasim had to take on its investment in oil refining company MRPL. Net profit, after taking into account the exceptional items, stood at Rs 367 crore against Rs 302 crore in 2001-02
Grasim