Owing to issues like land acquisition, environment clearances, cement companies may go slow on capacity expansion during the current five-year plan (2012-17), media reports suggest. Land acquisition is a big issue. No state government is providing land to set up units, and getting clearances from different authorities take time. A top official from the cement company said that new expansion is tough, for the last couple of years, the company has been trying to acquire land in Karnataka, which will take another few months. According to a working group’s report, India would require 480 million tonne (mn t) of standing capacity by 2011-12. Land acquisition, environment clearances, poor demand and inadequate supply of raw materials such as limestone, coal and fly ash might hamper expansion plans; say industry officials and market experts. During 2007-12, the companies added 150 mn t of fresh capacities taking it to 330 mn t, about 10 per cent more than the targeted 300 mn t. The first few years of the period saw cement makers post exorbitant profits which were utilised for rapid expansion. It is learnt that majority of the cement makers are facing hurdles. Some analysts feel capacity creation would be very difficult in India owing to paucity of land and limestone deposits among others. Several cement companies have written down assets. So they expect expansion to be slower than the demand growth.