ACC plans to set up a clinker production facility of 2.79 million tonnes (mt) a year at Jamul in Chhattisgarh to meet the demand for cement in the eastern region. The project will be implemented in a phased manner by March quarter of 2015, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
ACC will phase out the existing clinkering and grinding line at Jamul, it added.
Part of Holcim Group, ACC has a production capacity of 30 mt a year through 16 cement plants and employs over 9,000 people across the country. It has more than 40 ready-mix concrete plants.
ACC will also increase existing grinding capacity at Sindri in Jharkhand and a new grinding plant is being built at Kharagpur in West Bengal, Holcim had said, while announcing its annual results recently.
Both installations will source clinker from the new Jamul plant. The overall capacity of ACC will increase to 35 mt when all these projects are completed, it added.
BUOYANT DEMAND
The eastern region has bucked the general slowing demand for cement in other parts of country. The ongoing power and other infrastructure projects have been holding cement demand in the eastern region, said an analyst.
In September last year, ACC achieved production stabilisation at its newly inaugurated 12,500 tonnes a day kiln at Wadi in Karnataka.
The clinker produced at Wadi kiln was to feed the two satellite grinding units at Thondebhavi, near Bangalore, and Kudithini, near Bellary. The 1.6-mt a year grinding unit at Thondebhavi produces fly ash-based Portland Pozzolana cement, while the Kudithini plant uses slag generated primarily by JSW Steel for producing 1.1 mt a year Portland slag cement.