UltraTech crosses 200 million tonne capacity in India
MUMBAI: UltraTech Cement crossed 200 million tonnes production capacity in India, bolstering its leadership of the world’s second largest market for the building material.
The Aditya Birla Group company has more than tripled its capacity in a decade, and is also the world’s largest cement producer, outside of China.
UltraTech Cement’s annual capital expenditure of about Rs 16,000 crore currently is expected to expand capacity further to 240 million tonnes by FY28. The company currently controls about a fourth of the Indian market.
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About 110 million tonnes of the existing capacity comprises greenfield and brownfield expansions, with the rest 90 million tonnes coming in through acquisitions. Over the past few years, some of the company’s key acquisitions are L&T Cement, Jaypee Cement, Binani Cement, Century, Kesoram Industries, and India Cements.
“It took us 36 years to reach 100 million tonnes,” said chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla. “The next 50 million followed in five. The 50 after that, in just over two. No cement company in the world has added capacity at this pace in the last decade.”
During the day, the company commissioned three additional cement grinding units at Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Patratu in Jharkhand, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
At a consolidated level, UltraTech’s capacity is now at 205.5 million tonnes, including 5.4 million tonnes from its operations in the UAE, Bahrain, and Sri Lanka.
“The 200 MTPA number in my view does not represent only our capacity, but also India’s place in the world,” said Birla. “It describes an India that carries scale with confidence – in its ambitions, its execution, and its sense of self.”.
