ACC alternative fuel business soars

ACC Ltd, the largest cement manufacturer in India, has seen its alternative fuels and raw materials (AFR) business, grow at more than 20 per cent this year. The company, which was looking at petcoke and biomass as alternative fuel and raw material, had earlier told reporters that it expects to add about Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore to its bottomline every year in the next 2-3 years for this new initiative.

However, ACC’s plans to include this business into its books have been deferred. Declining to give specifics, Sumit Banerjee, MD of ACC Ltd said, “Due to certain procedural constraints prevailing at this juncture, the decision to separately include the AFR business numbers in the books of accounts of ACC has been deferred.”

 “The AFR business of ACC is growing at a rate of more than 20% this year. The co-processing services are now being offered to the waste generators from all the ACC plants,” said Banerjee.

According to experts, “This move seems to be a way to reduce the impact of the weakening cement cycle by getting into related verticals.”

Meanwhile, Enam Research in its report said poor demand and new capacity additions are likely to result in overcapacity in the North in FY10 and it expects ACC to witness margin contraction despite falling imported coal prices.