Kerneos hopes to commission new production unit by end 2016.

Kerneos Aluminate Technologies, a leader in specialty cements and part of a French multinational group, hopes to commission its proposed Rs. 120- crore facility in India by December 2016. The company has finalized plans to set up a greenfield unit near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.


'We are committed to produce locally in India. We chose Visakhapatnam as the site for our own factory since it is ideally placed close to our customers in the eastern region. Being a port-based site, it offers the advantage of raw materials imports while serving as a base for exports in the near future,' Jean-Marc Bianchi, president & CEO of Kerneos said. The new unit will produce calcium alumina cement (CAC), in which Kerneos' is a world leader. It will have an initial capacity of 30,000 tonne. Kerneos plans to add a similar capacity at a later stage depending on the product offtake in India. The Visakhapatnam unit will be Kerneos' seventh manufacturing facility worldwide.


'In the last few months, the level of confidence in the Indian economy has gone up substantially compared to the last 12 months. The government's is taking steps to improve infrastructure needs that will boost greenfield projects in the steel sector. Additionally, we also expect brownfield projects, expansion of capacity by state owned and private steel plants in future. This bodes well for us, since steel sector is a key user of our products. 'New plants and capacities will also lead to adoption of new technologies and use of modern refractory materials like monoliths that use CACs,' the Kerneos official said.


ET