Shree Cement to invest Rs 600 crore in Jharkhand

The company also has plans to invest in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and is waiting to get land acquisition issues cleared

Kolkata-based Shree Cement signed an agreement with the government of Jharkhand to set up a three million tonne annual capacity cement grinding unit, at an investment of Rs 600 crore. The company plans to complete the project in two years.

This was signed at the Jharkhand government's  road show here, in the run-up to a Global Investors Summit it plans early next year. Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das attended the event.

H M Bangur, managing director of Shree Cement, said the proposed unit will meet the requirement of Jharkhand, currently a net importer of cement, beside catering to the demand of nearby markets.

The company would bring clinker, the raw material, all the way from its clinker unit in Chhattisgarh to make the final product, as Jharkhand has no limestone deposits to set up a clinker plant. “We propose to make both pozzolana and slag cement varieties at our plant,” he said.

The company also has plans to invest in  Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and was waiting to get land acquisition issues cleared, he added.

He said he expected cement prices to rise, as demand for it was expected to rise by eight per cent annually from the present three per cent, while capacity addition was not taking place at the same pace in line with the future demand growth.