Chettinad Cement to expand capacity

Total capacity to reach 13.2 million tonnes
Funding through internal accruals and loans
CHENNAI: Chettinad Cement has drawn up plans to expand the capacity to 13.2 million tonnes from 7.5 million tonnes. The company has plants in Puliyur, Karikkali and Ariyalur (all in Tamil Nadu). Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, after unveiling the company’s new corporate identity, M A M R Muthiah, Managing Director, said the Puliyur and Karikkali plants would together see a capacity enhancement of 2.7 million tonnes by December next year through a combination of process improvements and brownfield expansion involving an additional line in Karikkali.
Greenfield unit
Mr. Muthiah said the company was planning to set up a greenfield plant with a capacity of three million tonnes annually at Gulbarga (Karnataka) where huge limestone reserves were available. “This location is slated for further expansion in similar sized modules in future up to 2015”, he said.
The Gulbarga unit including a 45 MW power plant would involve an outlay of Rs. 700 crore, Mr. Muthiah said. This would also be funded with internal accruals and borrowings, Mr. Muthiah said.
According to C. Sudhakar, President (Operations and Projects), the company has invested significantly in captive power generation.
The current installations and expansion under completion in Tamil Nadu, totalling 105 MW, would meet 80 per cent of power requirements.