Cement capacity up at 190 mt

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Chennai, Apr 28: The total production capacity of the Indian cement industry has gone up to 190 million tonne for the fiscal ended March 31, 2008 as compared to 167 mt during the previous fiscal, a growth of 13% to 14%. For the first time, the industry has seen an addition of over 22 mt in a single year during 2007-08, said industry sources here.

Almost every other player in the industry has either put up a new plant or have expanded capacity, ranging between a minimum of two lakh tonne and a maximum of three million tonne spread across all producing states in all four regions, said the sources.

Some of the major players who have added capacity include Ambuja Cement, Lafarge, Ultratech, India Cements, Madras Cement, Shree Cement, Grasim, Jaypee. Kesoram, Century Textiles among others. These additions were based on the increasing demand and supply gap and the industry hopes to do a better year in the current fiscal too, the sources said.

Except a few one million tonne plus capacity addition in big cities, most of the additions were small in size and were between two lakh tonne and eight lakh tonne in capacity. Interestingly, these capacities addition taken place in small pockets of all four regions, the sources pointed out. The industry move to have wider presence, though in small quantity, is to cash in on emerging developmental activities while ensuring continued supply over a period of time, the sources pointed out.

Meanwhile, led by western region, the industry continued to maintain its 10% growth rate in despatches during the year. With the near total capacity utilisation, the total despatches were higher at 170 mt as against 155 mt during the previous year. Western region reported a growth of 15% in consumption, followed by northern region (12%) and southern region (10%). Among the states, Haryana reported 24% growth in consumption, followed by Delhi (17%), Gujarat (15%), Andhra Pradesh (15%), Maharashtra (14%) and Tamil Nadu (13%).