Coal news and updates

Shree Cement starts operation at Aurangabad unit

June 6: Shree Cement Ltd has started marketing cement from its newly-built plant at Aurangabad in Bihar even as it plans to commence production at its Chhattisgarh unit in September, a company official said.

“We started a 1 million tons per annum (mtpa) cement plant sometime back and marketing of cement has also commenced in a limited way,” the official said.

“The marketing will pick up gradually as we streamline the operations in stages. It is normal for any new unit to take some time to streamline production,” the official added.

The company is planning to tap all areas within a radius of 400 km from the plant that will include the entire state of Jharkhand, parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar as well as West Bengal.

“We are bringing clinker from Rajasthan by rail for the Aurangabad unit,” the official added.

Commenting on the status of the Chhattisgarh unit, the official said the company plans to commence the grinding unit in September 2014 and start cement production in December 2014.

“The Chhattisgarh plant will initially have a capacity to produce 1 mtpa of cement, which will be increased to 2 mtpa in the second phase,” the official said.

The official indicated that Shree Cement might have to use imported gypsum once the Chhattisgarh plant is in place.

“Till now, we are using domestic gypsum as Rajasthan has natural gypsum, but after the Chhattisgarh plant starts operations, we will use imported gypsum as well,” the official said.

Asked what would be the total investment on the Aurangabad and Chhattisgarh plants, the official said, as per thumb rule, around Rs 600 crore is needed to set up a cement plant of 1 mtpa.