B K Birla Group flagship Kesoram Industries is eyeing to be back in black in the next 18 months as the company aims to reduce debt and improving margins.
“At least 18 months from now we should be in black. So, this year we will go all out for turning to black,” P Radhakrishnan, whole-time director & CEO, Kesoram, told reporters here on Wednesday after the company’s annual general meeting.
At the end of the last financial year, the company’s net loss on a consolidated basis stood at Rs 194.27 crore.
Radhakrishnan said the company was planning to reduce its debt to around Rs 1,200 crore in the next few years from the current level of Rs 1,700 crore.
In order to improve margins, the company is increasing the weightage of blended cement in the product mix. Its focus is on to scaling up blended cement production.
Out of 7 million tonne production in the last financial year, 3.8 million tonne was blended.
“Now, around 54% of our cement production is blended. We would like to increase it up to 80% going forward. In the current fiscal, we plan to take it to around 60%,” the CEO said, adding margins of blended cement were generally higher.
Kesoram currently has a cement production capacity of around 10 million tonne, while the clinker capacity stands at around 6 million tonne. Going forward, the company may explore the possibility of setting up a greenfield grinding unit at its land in Maharashtra’s Solapur.