Ambuja Cement is likely to defer its 1.5 million tpa clinker grinding unit at Sanand in Gujarat till 2010, due to tumultuous market conditions. The company is expected to decide on the project after doing budgetary allocations in 2010.
Ambuja Cement had planned to invest Rs 275 crore in the Sanand unit, which was scheduled to go on stream during 2009. This was among the four grinding units the company has planned to commission during 2009 and 2010 at an overall investment of Rs 1,000 crore. Of these, as of now two projects stand deferred. The company had also postponed work on its one million tpa grinding unit at Barh in Bihar.
Meanwhile, the project cost of its two clinker capacities in Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh with a capacity of 2.2 million tpa each has escalated by 10 per cent from the earlier projection of Rs 1,600 to Rs 1,750 crore due to the rise in steel prices and civil contracts during 2008. The Chhattisgarh clinker unit is expected to be commissioned by mid-2009, whereas the Himachal unit will go on stream by end-2009.
Source : ProjectsToday
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