In a scale milestone that underscores the pace of consolidation and expansion in the cement sector, Aditya Birla Group’s UltraTech Cement on Friday crossed 200 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of installed capacity in India, after commissioning three new grinding units. The additions, with a cumulative capacity of 8.7 MTPA, take domestic capacity to 200.1 MTPA, placing the company as the world’s largest cement producer outside China.
Including overseas operations, UltraTech’s consolidated global capacity stands at 205.5 MTPA, with 5.4 MTPA spread across the UAE, Bahrain and Sri Lanka.
“Today, UltraTech’s cement capacity is almost twice the cement capacity of the United States and greater than the entire cement capacity of the European Union,” Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, said at the commissioning ceremony.
The three units – located in Shahjahanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Patratu (Jharkhand) and Vizag (Andhra Pradesh) – are aimed at tightening supply in key consumption corridors, particularly in North and East India, as infrastructure and housing demand sustain.
Birla framed the milestone as an acceleration rather than an endpoint. “It took us 36 years to reach 100 million tonnes. The next 50 million followed in five. The 50 (MTPA) after that, in just over two (years),” he said, outlining the compression in expansion cycles.
Rapid Scaling
Of the 200 MTPA capacity, around 110 MTPA has been created through greenfield and brownfield expansions, while 90 MTPA has come via acquisitions, including L&T Cement, Jaypee, Binani, Century, Kesoram and, most recently, India Cements. The build-out reflects a mix of organic scale-up and consolidation-led growth in a fragmented market.
The next leg is already underway. UltraTech has committed over Rs 16,000 crore in capital expenditure to lift consolidated capacity to 240 MTPA by FY28, a trajectory that would further widen its lead over domestic peers.
Building Bharat
Operational scale is being matched with market reach. “One in every three homes built in India is built with UltraTech. Two of every five kilometres of NHAI’s concrete roads. Four of every five kilometres of metro rail. Two of every five bags of cement that go into India’s airports,” Birla said, pointing to penetration across core infrastructure segments.
He added that UltraTech has supplied to marquee projects including Central Vista, the new Parliament building, the Mumbai Coastal Road, the Dwarka Expressway, the Navi Mumbai International Airport and the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train, calling them physical signatures of a more confident India.
The company’s distribution network spans 150,000 channel partners and reaches over 90% of India’s talukas. “If you place an order with UltraTech and then go to watch Dhurandhar, the order will reach your home before the film is over,” Birla said.
Alongside expansion, UltraTech said it is working to lower specific CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement, increase the share of alternative fuels and raw materials, and embed greener construction practices across its operations.