MP Birla Group flagship, Birla Corporation plans to invest about INR 1,025 crore over the next one and a half years for expanding its cement and power capacity.

Mr Harsh V Lodha chairman said that "Presently, we have a capacity of producing 7.5 million tonne of cement. After capacity expansion, it is expected to touch 9.3 million tonne by March 2012.”

He said work on the 1.2 million tonne Brownfield project for increase of capacity at Chanderia and 0.6 million tonne capacity addition at Durgapur is progressing satisfactorily and the projects are likely to be commissioned by November to December 2011.

The expansion projects relating to replacement of old cement ball mills, one at Satna and the other at Chanderia, for increasing the cement grinding capacity and ensuring power saving are also progressing satisfactorily. He added that "To optimise the logistics costs, we also propose to install a grinding cum packing plant with a capacity of 750,000 tonne per annum at Kota, Rajasthan. Cement capacity of the Raebarelli works is being expanded from 630,000 tonne per annum to 800,000 tonne.”

While talking about outlook of cement sector, Mr Lodha said this sector has witnessed massive capacity additions of over 100 million tonne during the past three years, which in turn, has resulted in significant pressure on price realisation and also on capacity utilization during 2010.

(Sourced from ET)