N Srinivasan, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, India Cements declared that the firm explores an opportunity to expand its capacity in Rajasthan at an investment of around Rs 650-700 crore.

The plan comes on the backdrop of growing demand in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Present capacity of the plant is 1.3 million tonne and the company plans to add one more line with similar capacity. The expansion would help the company to cater Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh markets, said Srinivasan.

The firm feels that Gujarat market is growing well and the demand is also high. India Cements current manufacturing capacity is 15.5 mnt with plants in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. At present the company’s capacity utilisation is around 70 per cent in South India, which reported a flat growth, while All India demand grew by 6 per cent. On net plant realisation, he said, in third quarter it was Rs 3,360 as compared to Rs 3,460, a year ago. The drop was due to slow down in demand.

India Cements net profit dropped to Rs 26.12 crore in third quarter from Rs 56.31 crore, a year ago. Total income rose to Rs 1,083.88 crore from Rs 943.95 crore.India’s cement production is likely to rise by 6.4 per cent this fiscal, following an estimated growth of 4.8 per cent in December-March 2013 quarter, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has said in its monthly review. CMIE said that cement production is likely to grow by 4.8 per cent between the December-March 2013 period. The year 2012-13 is expected to end with a 6.4 per cent growth. The demand for cement is expected to improve as construction activity picks up in coming months. However, the growth may moderate as the effect of low base wanes. The dispatches are also likely to rise at a similar pace as production, it said.

Cement production rose by 7.3 per cent in October 2012 to 199.1 lakh tonne. This was over a 1.5 per cent growth in the corresponding month a year ago. Judging by the volume growth witnessed in January 2013, we could reasonably expect a similar trend during the last quarter of 2012-13.

Contact: India Cements.

Tel: 044 2852 1526.

Website: www.indiacements.com