TN Cements expands capacity with ₹809-cr spend.

Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation Ltd. (TANCEM) has expanded the capacity at its Ariyalur complex at an investment of ₹809 crore.

With this, its total cement production increases to 17 lakh tonnes a year from 7 lakh tonnes.

TANCEM, a Government of Tamil Nadu undertaking, has two manufacturing plants - one at Ariyalur district (5 lakh tonnes per annum capacity) and another at Alangulam in Virudhunagar district (2 lakh tonnes).

A new plant has been established in the premises of the existing plant at Ariyalur. The expanded facility, which will produce about 10 lakh tonnes annually from next fiscal, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami through video conferencing recently.

The expansion will generate job opportunities for 250 people directly and 1,000 people indirectly, said the firm.

TANCEM has been supplying cement to the District Rural Development Agency and 116 other government departments at prices below the prevailing market rate. It supplied 74 per cent of its production, i.e., 4.07 lakh tonnes, to government departments in FY19, according to a government document.

This included 488 tonnes of ordinary portland cement (OPC) and 4,06,792 tonnes of pozzolana portland cement (PPC). The prevailing market rates of OPC and PPC are ₹405 and ₹395 per bag, respectively. However, TANCEM supplied them to government departments at ₹298 and ₹285 per bag, respectively.

HBL