Mumbai : UltraTech Cement has estimated capital expenditure for the current financial year ending March at Rs 2,500 crore, on account of capacity expansion, waste heat recovery systems, regulatory requirements, plant infrastructure and routine maintenance, the company said in its latest annual report.
India’s largest cement producer will also seek shareholders’ approval to raise up to Rs 9,000 crore through non-convertible debentures during the year, it said in a filing . The Aditya Birla group company has scheduled its 18th AGM on Jul 18 in Mumbai.
In 2017-18, the company spent over RS 1,900 crore on a greenfield project at Manawar in Madhya Pradesh, a grinding unit at Bara in Uttar Pradesh, a waste heat recovery system in Chhattisgarh, and capital expenditure related to plant modernisation. The company’s net capital expenditure for 2017-18 rose by a sharp 49 per cent to Rs 1,840 crore.
In the financial year ended March, the company commissioned a greenfield clinker capacity of 2.5 mln tn per annum in Madhya Pradesh, a 1.75-mtpa cement-grinding facility and an auto-loading facility.
Another cement-grinding facility of 1.75 mtpa capacity, as well as a 13 MW waste heat recovery system are expected to be completed before September, according to the annual report. The company’s board of directors has also approved setting up a 3.5 mtpa integrated cement plant at Pali, Rajasthan, at an investment of around Rs 1,850 crore. Commercial production from the plant is expected to commence by June 2020, the company said. In a letter to shareholders, Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said growth in the cement sector is expected to remain around 8 per cent in the current financial year, which is encouraging as compared to the last few years. “The government’s unrelenting thrust on bringing the nation’s infrastructure up to speed, coupled with inclusive growth, is the major push factor for the economy. The outlook on the sector is bright,” he said.
