Lafarge to give ACC, Ambuja run for money

With domestic cement companies ACC and Ambuja Eastern expanding their production capacities in the eastern region of India Lafarge does not want to be left out. The French cement major has jumped into the bandwagon to increase output, says Business Standard Ltd.

In a fresh move, Lafarge announced expansion of the Sonadih plant in Chhattisgarh to add 3Mt cement production in next five years and to take the total capacity to 8.5Mta from the existing 5.5Mta.

The proposed expansion will help Lafarge remain ahead of ACC and Ambuja Eastern. At present, ACC’s production capacity in the region is 4.5Mta which in the next 3-4 years is expected to reach 7Mt. The company is also modernising plants in Jharkhand (Chaibasa, Sindri) and Orissa.

Six months back Ambuja Eastern had announced expansion of the the Bhatapara plant in Chhattisgarh to add 3.5Mt capacity by 2010 and to increase the capacity to 6Mt from the existing 2.5Mt.

Lafarge’s Chhatisgarh project is scheduled to be completed in two phases. The first phase will see Rs 812 crore investment to construct a second production line at Sonadih plant in Raipur and to increase capacity by 1.6 to 3Mt. Besides, it will build a 1Mt grinding station at Mejia in West Bengal.

This company’s second expansion announcement in the last fortnight. Last month, Lafarge announced setting up a 3Mt unit in Himachal Pradesh, its first venture in the north.Cement plants in eastern part, last fiscal produced around 20Mt of the total domestic production of 142Mt.