Chettinad Cement to enter Karnataka this year, India

Chettinad Cement will commission a 2.5Mta cement plant in North Karnataka in the current year and has finalised plans to expand into Andhra Pradesh, Business Line of India reports.

The Karnataka unit will mark Chettinad Cement's geographical expansion outside Tamil Nadu and will give it market reach into Maharashtra, where it plans to put up a grinding unit of about 1.5Mta, according to MAMR, Muthiah, Chettinad Group's Managing Director.

The company has firm plans to expand its 11.50Mta production capacity by about 15Mt with 7.5Mta each in Karnataka and in Andhra Pradesh, where it plans to launch its operations with an acquisition of a 1.5Mta unit, apart from a Greenfield cement plant. These expansions will happen by 2015, according to Mr Muthiah.

In Karnataka, the INR900crore unit at Gulbarga, will take its total production capacity to about 14Mt in the current year. This unit will also supply a 1Mta grinding unit planned at Solapur, Maharashtra, which will expand the company's market reach.

Chettinad Cement currently has three units in Tamil Nadu in Karur, Dindigul and Ariyalur which are supported with captive thermal power capacity of 105MW. An additional 30MW is also being established at the Dindigul plant, he said.