Cement makers likely to slash capacity by 8% this year
ACC, UltraTech Cement and other Indian cement makers may cut capacity utilisation by as much as eight per cent in the financial year ending March 2008 as demand slows and new capacities are added, industry experts and analysts said.
“Demand growth will not be as much as it was earlier as core sectors are registering a slowdown. In FY09, the average capacity utilisation of the domestic cement industry will slip to 87 per cent from 95 per cent during the last year,” H M Bangur, president of the Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA) and managing director of Shree Cement, said. “Industry’s capacity is enough now.’’
CMA in its latest report has said that the industry added 30.34Mt of additional capacities during the last financial year instead of 22.24Mt as estimated earlier. This made the industry meet the target set by the report of the working group on cement industry for the eleventh five year plan (2007-12) from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Published under Cement News
