Lakshmi Cem plans Rs 400 cr expansion

J K Lakshmi Cement, a leading cement producer in north India, is expanding its capacity from 3.4 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes. The company has lined up investments worth Rs 400 crore for the expansion, which will go into setting up a cement plant, a grinding unit, a co-generation unit and seven ready mix concrete (RMC) plants.

"We are investing Rs 230 crore in expanding the cement capacity at Sirohi (Rajasthan) from 3.4 million tonnes to 5 million tonnes. Another Rs 72 crore will be used for setting up a 18 megawatt power plant to supply power for the additional capacity. The additional capacity will be operational from October next year," said Shailendra Chouksey, whole-time director of the company.

With the extra capacity, the company will be in a position to make an impact on cement prices in the market. Post-expansion, the unit will be the country's second single location cement unit with a capacity of 5 million tonnes.

As of now, Ultratech Cement's Gujarat facility is the sole 5 million tonne single-location unit in the country, said Chouksey.

"We are also investing Rs 56 crore in setting up 7 RMC plants in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab, taking the number of RMC plants to 12 by the end of current financial year," he said.

RMC refers to concrete that is specifically manufactured for delivery to the customer's construction site in a freshly mixed and unhardened state.

Concrete itself is a mixture of the portland cement, water and aggregates comprising sand and gravel. It can be custom-made to suit different applications.

RMC has replaced 10 per cent of cement demand. Bulk users in the real estate business are increasingly using RMC to save on time and cost overrun in projects.

In booming construction centres such as Gurgaon, almost 70 per cent of cement consumption is in the form of RMC.