The Union and State governments have initiated many major development projects, including new capital region for Andhra Pradesh, Smart Cities, high-speed railways and concretisation of roadways. These activities should help the growing market for green cement.

-Anil Kumar Pillai,

Director and CEO, JSW Cement

With various large infrastructure projects announced by the government in the southern regions of the country, JSW Cement is expecting huge market for ‘green cement’ or Portland Slag Cement (PSC), which is manufactured by blending the Ground Granulated Blast Furnace Slag (GGBS) with Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) using mechanical blenders.

“The Union and State governments have initiated many major development projects, including new capital region for Andhra Pradesh, Smart Cities, high-speed railways and concretisation of roadways. These activities should help the growing market for green cement or PSC, which is most suitable for infrastructure projects because of its high flexural strength and low risk of cracking,” Anil Kumar Pillai, director and CEO, JSW Cement, told Metro India.

“We use quality slag produced at our steel manufacturing plant, and produce eco-friendly cement. Our plants at Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh, Vijayanagar in Karnataka and Dolvi in Maharashtra utilise slag from the JSW Steel plants to produce green cement. We expect to see huge volumes of PSC to be absorbed by the government bodies for the infrastructure projects. Also, we are ready to bid at comparatively lower price to the government to participate in the country’s growth story,” he said.

Pillai further said, “Even for individual users we are offering PSC at a marginally lower price for more penetration into the market. To spread awareness on the advantages of PSC, the company regularly holds meets with builders, civil consultants, architects, contractors, purchase managers and masons in urban and rural markets of south India.”

JSW Cement manufactures 95 per cent PSC and the rest is GGBS and OPC. JSW Cement sees capacity utilisation at 70 per cent in Maharashtra and Karnataka, while Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and other southern States are operating at just 50-55 per cent capacity utilisation. The company aims at net sales of over Rs 1,200 crore in this fiscal year. The company plans to increase its cement capacity from six million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 20 mtpa by 2018. It will add 10 grinding units in different parts of the country in the next two years with an investment of Rs 2,500 crore, he said.

“JSW Cement also has plans to double the capacity of Nandyal unit from 2.4 mpta to 4.8 mtpa after 3-4 years depending on the market demand. Currently, the company is expanding the grinding capacity at Vijayanagar from 0.6 mtpa to 2.4 mtpa by October this year. Similarly, it plans to increase the capacity of grinding unit at Dolvi from 0.6 mtpa to 2.4 mtpa. New units are planned at Salboni in West Bengal, Salem in Tamil Nadu and Jajpur in Odisha with 4.8 mpta, 1.2 mpta and 1.2 mpta, respectively, for which we are in the process of getting clearances from the State governments,” he said.

On the company’s acquisition plans, Pillai said: “JSW Cement has examined Lafarge assets being disposed in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The company is still looking into the matter. There are no plans to acquire Andhra Cements, a part of Jaypee Group, as we already have huge capacity in Andhra Pradesh.”