Tamil Nadu based Ramco Cements Ltd has lined up investments to the tune of Rs 3500 crore to enhance its capacity to 20 million tonnes by 2020 from the present integrated capacity of 12.5 million tonnes.

P R Venketrama Raja, Chairman and Managing Director, Ramco Cements said that the new capacity in West Bengal is already on stream, the Odisha plant is expected to commissioned by October and Jayanthipuram in Andhra Pradesh by July 2020. Besides, the company is setting up a greenfield project in Kurnool by March 2021 with a capacity of three million tonnes.

Raja, who was in Kochi in connection with the launch of its new premium product Ramco Supercrete, said that the company has strong presence in southern and eastern parts of the country with plants in Tami Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and the proposed one in Odisha. “We are expecting a 10 per cent increase in turnover from Rs 5000 crore in the current fiscal', he added.

According to A V Dharmakrishnan, CEO, Ramco Cements - the company showed a 20 per cent per cent growth last year and the capacity utilisation, which is at 90 per cent, is higher than that of the industry. The cement production capacity in India is at 442 million tonnes, while the consumption was at 300 million tonnes with a capacity utilisation of 68 per cent. The per capita consumption of cement in the country is 195 kg where as in China and the US, the figure was 1000 kg and in Europe 700 kg, he said.

Balaji K Moorthy, President (Marketing) pointed out that all the southern states except Tamil Nadu has shown a good sales growth for the company. The political situation in Tamil Nadu coupled with floods and drought has contributed to a lower performance, while in Kerala, the company's sales were hit for four months after the flood last year. The growth has started picking up in Kerala and Ramco is the market leader with a 20 per cent share in the state, he added.

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