Heidelberg eyes expansion through acquisitions

HeidelbergCement Group is planning to expand business through acquisitions and new facilities, according to a top company official, here on Monday.

"Putting up a heat recovery unit, debottlenecking cement unit, acquisitions are some of HeidelbergCement Group' plans to cut cost and raise capacity to 20 million tonnes per annum (mtpa)," he said.

HidelbergCement Group consists of two companies HeidelbergCement India Ltd (HCIL) and Zuari Cement Ltd.

"We will be putting up a waste heat recovery unit at Zuari plant in Yerraguntla, Andhra Pradesh, at an outlay of Rs 200 crore. It would enable us to generate 22 MW power," said J.N. Cooper, Managing Director.

He said the 43 MW Sitapuram Power in Andhra Pradesh and Zuari Cement could be merged. The group is also looking at options, like acquisitions and greenfield projects, to increase the production capacity to about 20 mtpa from 12.5 mtpa.

On acquisition plans, Cooper said, the group was in talks with some cement company promoters who wanted to avoid the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) process. "We are looking at cement companies with 5-10 mtpa capacity," Cooper said.

According to him, debottlenecking is in progress at a cost of Rs 50 crore in HCIL plants, which would increase the capacity by half-a-million tonne when completed by 2021.

The proposed 3 mtpa cement project in Gujarat, to be set up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore, was awaiting approvals, he said.

According to Cooper, HCIL caters to the central India and Zuari Cement the southern market.

The Zuari Cement plant is operating at 62 per cent due to market downturn and the company planned to raise it to 70 per cent by next year. HCIL is working at 92 per cent capacity utilisation.

( With inputs from IANS )