HeidelbergCement India to raise capacity further by 2017

HeidelbergCement India plans to more than double cement capacity by 2017 by adding some 9Mta of new volumes.

The Indian arm of the German cement major has a capacity of 6Mta following the expansion of its clinker and cement grinding plants in Central India earlier this year in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. With the expansion of the plants, the company's cement production capacity in India has been hiked from 3.1Mta to the present 6Mta.

Speaking about the next phase of investments, Ashish Guha, managing director and CEO of HeidelbergCement India told Business Standard: "We should reach around 15Mt by 2017 – an addition of 9Mta. And most of these additions would be via inorganic route." He hinted that there could be at least two transactions in the foreseeable future, but did not give any timeframe.

Recent expansions

Earlier this year production at the Narsingarh production site in Madhya Pradesh rose from 1.2Mta to 3.1Mta where a 20km long overland belt conveyor, which is one of the longest in India, has been built to transport limestone from the quarry to the production site. At the Imlai plant, also situated in the state of Madhya Pradesh grinding capacity was increased from 1Mta to 2Mta. Meanwhile at the the company’s Jhansi works in Uttar Pradesh, grinding capacity rose from 0.8Mta to 2.7Mta.

Infrastructure driver

HeidelbergCement said it believes the long-term outlook for the Indian cement sector is positive given the country’s infrastructure requirements. “We understand that the Indian Government will be investing US$1trn in infrastructure projects over the next five years which will fuel the growth in the country,” Dr Bernd Scheifele, Chairman of the Managing Board of HeidelbergCement, said.