France-based Vicat Group, which owns 51 per cent stake in Bharathi Cements and Vicat-Sagar Cement, is likely to sell 4.5 million tonne of cement in India in FY 2013, said its Country-Head (India) Gilles du Manoir. The group was ‘upbeat’ on the cement industry’s growth outlook and expected it to grow at about eight per cent this year, Manoir told the media in Hyderabad on January 31.
Apart from the newly-commissioned Rs 1,800-crore joint venture cement plant, Vicat-Sagar Cement at Chattrasal, Gulbarga district of Karnataka, Vicat has 51 per cent stake in Bharathi Cement. While Bharathi Cement plant in Kadapa has 5 mt capacity, Vicat-Sagar has 2.75 mt capacity in the first phase.
Anoop Kumar Saxena, Managing Director, Bharathi Cement, said the capacity utilisation was at 50 per cent in Kadapa plant. In Vicat-Sagar 60 per cent utilisation was likely in the first year, said M Ravinder Reddy, Head-Marketing.