Grasim plans spread in North

The cement division of Grasim Industries Ltd is planning to put up a grinding unit in Punjab with an initial investment of Rs 250-300 crore. The proposed unit will have an installed capacity of 1.2-1.3 million tonnes.

Also, the company is infusing about Rs 750 crore in setting up plants and expanding the capacities of the existing plants in the northern region.

Grasim Industries Ltd's cement business group executive president (marketing and strategy) OP Puranmalka said, "The location for the proposed grinding unit is yet to be finalised, but we intend to set up in Punjab."

According to the zonal head (north) of the company, Sanjay Mathur, the company has an 18 per cent share in the cement market of Punjab.

Also, the company is infusing about Rs 750 crore in putting UP new plants and expanding the capacities of the plants situated in the northern region. The company is putting up new plant in Kotputli in Rajasthan, Dadri and Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and Panipat in Haryana.

Also, the company has plans to increase the production capacity of its Bathinda grinding unit from 1.1 million tonnes to 1.4 million tonnes and Sambhupura (Rajasthan) unit from 1.8 million tonnes to 3 million tonnes.

At present the group has 11 composite plants, seven split grinding units, four bulk terminals (inclusive of one in Sri Lanka) and 40 ready-mix concrete plants spread in the country.

The Aditya Birla Group's cement capacity is in excess of 31 million tonnes. Puranmalka said, "Buoyed by the performance of the industry, we are going up our capacity by 15 million tonnes per annum by 2008-09. This will take total capacity to 46 million tonnes."

Purnmalka said: "India has enormous potential for growth, given the lower per capita consumption of only 136 kg against the global average of 356 kg at present. The per capita consumption of cement in India is perhaps the lowest in south-east Asia. In Thailand, it is 432 kg, China 790 kg, Malaysia 548 kg and in South Korea 1,046 kg. India, thus, offers a tremendous growth opportunity given its lower per capita consumption. The rise in per capita consumption would be fuelled by the strong growth in the housing sector and the government's thrust on infrastructure development. This will propel a robust volume growth."

He said that with the renaming of Birla Plus cement as Ultratech, it has become the largest cement brand in the country with volumes in excess of 25 million tonnes.

The company has planned road shows, technical meets with dealers, stockists, individual house builders, engineers, architects, masons and contractors to convince them about the quality of the brand.

In this financial year, the company aims to achieve a turnover of Rs 11,000 crore from the cement business. Its turnover in the last financial year was Rs. 9500 crore.