India Cements is planning to set up a new plant in Madhya Pradesh, and capacity debottlenecking at its plants in the South. The company also plans to repay debt to the tune of Rs 551 crore this year. In FY20-21, it had repaid a similar amount, he said.
India Cements has enough limestone reserves in the south for expansion, he said.
Srinivasan was addressing shareholders at the annual general body meeting (AGM) in Chennai on Wednesday. The AGM re-elected him as MD for five more years. Earlier in the day, the board of directors had approved his re-appointment with effect from May 26, 2021.
On capacity expansion, Srinivasan said: “We will take up expansion at the appropriate time, which is not far away.”
Input costs coming down
Last year, the company faced an unprecedented increase in the cost of coal. Power and fuel are the two major costs in cement production. “It is gradually coming down,” he said. The company is literally a power producer with 170 MW capacity.
“With the re-location of workplaces and increasing work-from-home concept, there is increased house building and construction activity in urban and semi-urban centres,” he said.
The Tamil Nadu government is providing a fillip to housing and infrastructure development. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments, too, were implementing irrigation, road building and other infrastructure projects and new housing schemes. All these gave room for cautious optimism for cement demand in the coming months, he said.
Referring to the performance of the company this year, he said in the first quarter that ended June 30, 2021, ICL reported an impressive performance despite the onslaught of the second wave of COVID-19.
It operated at 50 percent capacity against 35 percent in the first quarter of last year. Capacity utilisation in the second quarter was slightly better, he said.
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