Cement-maker Jaiprakash Associates today said it will invest around Rs 10,000 crore in the next three years to increase its annual production capacity to 50 million tonnes from a little over 20 million tonnes at present.
"We will invest around 10,000 crore in the next three years, including Rs 3,000 crore in the current fiscal, to jack up our annual production capacity to 50 million tonnes," Jaiprakash Associates Chief Financial Officer Rahul Kumar told PTI here.
The company has 19 million tonnes of installed capacity at its 12 plants across the northern, central and western parts of the country and a 2.2-million tonne facility within the Bhilai Steel Plant in a joint venture with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
Kumar said the proposed investment will be funded through a mix of debt and equity in the ratio of 70:30, but Jaiprakash does not have "any immediate plans" to raise equity to finance the debt part.
"We have new plants coming up in almost all parts of the country. This will take our installed capacity to 34 million tonnes by the end of the current fiscal," he said.
Jaiprakash Associates produced 11 million tonnes of cement in 2009-10 and hopes this will go up to 20 million tonnes in the current fiscal by enhancing capacity utilisation to almost 100 per cent.
Asked whether the company plans any acquisition, either in India or abroad, Kumar said," We will be open to evaluating any opportunities that may come our way."
India's total installed cement capacity, as of March, 2010, stood at around 250 million tonnes, though actual production last year was around 200 million tonnes.
According to Crisil Research, about 35 million tonnes of capacity is likely to be commissioned in 2011-12, as against 50 million tonnes in 2010-11.
Ratings agency Fitch had, in a recent report, also said that the country would be adding 50 million tonnes capacity in 2010, taking the total to around 300 million tonnes, resulting in shrinking of capacity utilisation of the industry to 75 per cent from around 87 per cent in 2009.
India's annual demand for cement was 149.7 million tonnes in FY'07, 164.4 million tonnes in FY'08 and 178.2 million tonnes in FY'09.
