The Hindu Business Line : ACC bullish on TN, Kerala markets

FUELLED by the boom witnessed in the housing, infrastructure and industrial sectors, cement consumption in Tamil Nadu during August this year crossed one million tonnes, pushing it to the top slot in cement usage among the Southern States.

It is not only the industrial hubs such as Chennai or Coimbatore but even areas beyond Madurai in the South seem to be witnessing frenzied construction and the robust demand for cement is expected to continue for the next two or three years, according to senior executives from the Associated Cement Companies Ltd (ACC), Madukkarai, near Coimbatore.

The ACC plant, which caters largely to the north Kerala and western Tamil Nadu markets, recorded a 20 per cent growth in cement demand and is confident of sustaining the growth.

Speaking to presspersons at the Madukkarai ACC plant on Monday, Mr A.K. Saxena, Vice President-Works, ACC, Madukkarai plant, and Mr J.V.B.Sastry, Vice President-Marketing, ACC-Regional Marketing, said the annual turnover of the plant was around Rs 350 crore, accounting for about 10 per cent of the total turnover of ACC.

The brand has a strong presence in northern Kerala, where its market share was around 35 per cent and in western Tamil Nadu, where its market share was 10 per cent-11 per cent.

The company wants to focus on its core area and increase its market share.

They said that in the past five months, cement consumption in the four Southern States had gone up by 20 per cent. The focus on infrastructure development, the IT boom, construction demand from health care, tourism, housing and industrial sectors have fuelled this growth and in Coimbatore too, there has been a jump in cement consumption.

The average cement consumption in the State was 7.5 lakh-8 lakh tonnes a month and there were occasions when it dipped even to 6.5 lakh tonnes a month.

When asked how long the boom in demand was expected to last, Mr Sastry said Chennai, after lagging behind Bangalore and Hyderabad ( as far as IT boom is concerned) has reached a take-off stage. Coimbatore is fast emerging as a mini-metro and the Madurai-Thoothukudi belt is witnessing a lot of infrastructure related activity. Kochi in Kerala is emerging as an IT hub and tourism is another sector in Kerala that is generating substantial demand for cement.

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