JSW Cement, part of the $11-billion JSW Group, plans to target southern cities — Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi — to grow its portland slag cement (PSC) market.
The company uses a large quantity of glassy slag from its steel plants located in Vijayanagar (Karnataka) to blend it with clinker to produce PSC.
“JSW Cement with a manufacturing capacity of 6 million tonnes (mt) has built a good distribution network. With this, we are targeting major southern cities initially, and later to enter smaller cities. The focus will be on selling PSC through consumer education,” Pankaj Kulkarni, Director, JSW Cement, told reporters.
The cement industry is dominated by Portland Pozzolana Cement, which accounts for about 65 per cent, and followed by Ordinary Portland Cement with 30 per cent. The share of PSC in the overall market is a mere 7 per cent, of which, JSW Cement holds 20-22 per cent.
The company is awaiting environment clearances to commence exploratory drilling at a limestone reserve allotted to it in north Karnataka. The reserve is located at Chittapur in Gulbarga district. “This will be the first step of the company to take forward its plan to set up a 3 mt clinkerisation plant,” said Kulkarni.
“This is only a deposit which has been allotted to us by the Karnataka Government, so we have to do drilling to estimate the reserve.”
The proposed plant, which as per current estimates would entail an investment of ₹2,000-2,500 crore, is to be the second facility of JSW Cement in Karnataka after its grinding unit in Vijayanagar.
The other facilities of the company, with a capacity to manufacture 6 mt of PSC, are at Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh, and Dolvi in Maharashtra.