Kohat Cement Co to renew cement bag manufacturing unit investment

Among matters to be considered in its 44th AGM of shareholders of 16 October 2023, Kohat Cement Co Ltd (KCCL) will approve, if deemed fit, the renewal of investment in the form of short-term running finance of up to PKR600m (US$2.126m) in Ultra Kraft (Pvt) Ltd (UKPL), an associated company.

The members of the company, in their last AGM, held on 27 October 2022, approved and renewed the Short Term Running Finance of up to PKR600m in the associated company, Ultra Kraft, to meet its working capital requirements for one year, valid until 28 October, 2023. The UKPL has requested the company to extend the facility for another year on existing terms and conditions. 

UKPL is a private limited company incorporated on 3 September 2020. KCCL and UKPL are associated companies by way of the common holding company, M/s ANS Capital (Private) Ltd (ANS). ANS holds 56.4and 76 per cent equity shares of KCCL, respectively. U

UKPL has set up a paper sack manufacturing plant in M3 Industrial City Faisalabad with 120m bags per annum production capacity for the cement industry and others. The commercial production started in August 2023, which was originally planned in April 2022, due to the short supply of kraft paper in the international market. Therefore, until 30 June 2023, UKPL has utilised only PKR160m out of the total sanctioned short-term running finance facility of PKR600m, says the latest report of KCCL.

New cement plant
The company is in the process of installing a new cement manufacturing plant at Khushab, Punjab. While the land acquisition is currently progressing, the import of plant and machinery has halted due to import restrictions, the devaluation of the Pakistani rupee and an economic slowdown.

KCCL currently has a grey clinker capacity of 4.78Mta and a white clinker capacity of 135,000tpa.

Solar power Initiative of the company
KCCL continues to invest in renewable energy to reduce its dependence on national grid and improve profitability. In August 2023 it successfully installed and commissioned a 10MW on-grid solar power plant at its Kohat plant site.

In addition, the Board approved the set-up of an addition on-grid solar power plant with a generation capacity of up to 15MW at Kohat, which will significantly contribute to cost savings.