UltraTech to set up 2 mtpa plant in Dankuni

Kumar Mangalam Birla-controlled UltraTech Cement Ltd has proposed setting up a cement plant in West Bengal of 2 million tonne capacity.

The unit, to be second in the state, has received the clearance from the West Bengal Pollution Control Board.
The plant would have capacities of 6,000 tonne per day of Portland Pozzolona cement, which will come up at Dankuni in district Hoogly.

According to the project report submitted by UltraTech to the state environment department, the plant will not be manufacturing clinker at the site, which would be brought from other manufacturing facility and would be ground with fly ash and gypsum.

The plant would consume 4,000-4,500 tonne of clinker, 1,350-1,900 tonne fly ash and 280-350 tonne gypsum  daily.
UltraTech has not proposed any captive power generation unit for the 10 mw the unit requires, and would source it from the state power utility, West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd.
UltraTech’s closest composite plants, from where it can source clinker, are at Hirmi and Rawan in Chhattisgarh and Tadpatri in Andhra Pradesh.

The company would require about 103 acre land for the project at Dankuni. It has drawn up a 9 million tonne capacity enhancement programme to be operational in 2013-14.

“To accelerate the pace of growth over the next 3 years, the company has earmarked a capital outlay of `11,000 crore. We are investing in the setting up of additional clinkerisation plants at Chhattisgarh and Karnataka together with grinding units, bulk packaging terminals and ready mix concrete plants across the country,” the company has said in its annual report for 2010-11.

“These expansions are expected to be operational in fiscal 2014 and will augment our cement capacity by 9.2 mtpa,” said the annual report.

Ultratech in 2010-11 produced 32.92 million tonnes of cement marginally up from 32.11 million tonnes in 2009-10.
Ultratech’s capacity expansion comes at a time when the cement industry is currently witnessing a situation of oversupply, which is likely to worsen in coming days with more capacities likely to get added.

The industry witnessed capacity addition of around 28 million tonnes in 2010-11, over and above the 6 million tonnes added in the previous year. This with the possible addition of around 22 million tonnes during the current fiscal will keep prices under check.