The Hindu Business Line : Lafarge to set up 3-mt plant in Himachal

French cement major Lafarge on Wednesday announced that it would be putting up a new three-million-tonne cement plant at Alsindi, Himachal Pradesh, at a cost of around Rs 900 crore.

With this, the company's cement capacity in India will go up from 5.5 million tonnes to 8.5 million tonnes.

The company has received necessary approvals from the HP Government and expects the new plant to be completed by 2010, the company said in a press release.

At present, Lafarge has three cement plants in India: two in Chhattisgarh and a grinding station at Jharkhand.

Acquisitions

Lafarge entered India in 1999 with the acquisition of the cement business of Tata Steel. This acquisition was followed by the purchase of the Raymond Cement facility in 2001.

The company had also tried to acquire other cement companies including that of Associated Cement Companies (ACC), which its international rival Holcim acquired later.

The company also has roofing business in India with a clay tile plant in Kerala and concrete tile plant in Bangalore.

Growing domestic market

Demand for cement has been growing in the past couple of years. Almost all cement companies have reported good results in the last few quarters. To take advantage of this growing appetite in the domestic market, foreign companies have been strengthening their position in the country.

Swiss cement major Holcim controls ACC and Gujarat Ambuja.

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