Firm to invest Rs 100 crore for cement project.
Having set up at least three ready-mix-concrete (RMC) plants in Gujarat, JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd. will now be investing over Rs 100 crore for a cement grinding plant at Kalol to enhance its clinkerisation capacity. At a capacity of 5 lakh tonnes per annum, the plant is expected to generate revenues of Rs 200 crore.
Recently, the company announced the commercial launch of an RMC plant in Vadodara and is soon planning to launch a similar plant in Ahmedabad. The RMC plants are expected to bear a capacity of 60 cubic metres per hour each, said Shailendra Chouksey, whole time director and chief executive officer of JK Lakshmi Cement Ltd.
“We already have a cement grinding plant in Rajasthan and wish to enhance our clinkerisation capacity by setting up a similar plant in Gujarat. Apart from that, we are also planning to set up three more RMC plants in near future,” said Chouksey. The company will be investing around Rs 8-10 crore for each of these RMC plants.
Currently, JK Lakshmi Cement is in the process of creating awareness about use of RMC in construction business.
“The concept of using concrete at the site by conventional means is gradually giving away to the more modern way of using RMC. In developed economies the site mix concrete now hardly constitute 20 per cent of the total concrete use, while the balance 80 per cent is in form of RMC. In case of RMC the ingredients are properly selected, stored and mixed in a calibrated weighing mechanism.”
Studies conducted by JK Lakshmi indicate that by using RMC, one can achieve almost 15.5 per cent savings in construction costs in terms of factors such as quality and wastage-avoidance, he added.
Once the grinding and RMC plants commence, JK Lakshmi Cement expects to increase its revenue from Gujarat from Rs 400 crore to Rs 600 by the end of the financial year.
The Rs 1,300 crore company holds a 10 per cent share of the 8 lakh tonnes per annum cement market in Gujarat.
