India’s Ramco Cements has announced plans to become debt-free in three years, while noting that FY20-21 will be a challenging year for the company.

"While the initial few months were impacted by COVID-19 related lockdown, the remaining months would see slower pick up as majority of Government spending gets channelised towards healthcare and supporting weaker sections of society," said A V Dharmakrishnan, CEO.

"Our priorities will be to efficiently market products and to become a debt-free entity in the next three years".

The company’s INR35bn (US$467.78m) capex programmes across southern and eastern states are reportedly still on track. However, the additional capacity will come onstream at a time when demand is expected to be weak, said P R Venketrama Raja, chairman.