CHENNAI : South-based cement manufacturer Ramco Cements Limited has estimated capital expenditure of Rs 1,700 crore for the upcoming 2024-25 financial year (FY25) after nearly doubling its capex in the current fiscal.
It has set its capex for the current year to Rs 2,000 crore, revised twice from Rs 900 crore guidance. For the December 2023 quarter, the company spent Rs 385 crore.
The company’s capex for capacity expansions from FY19 to FY24 stood at Rs 9,800 crore and has added cement capacity of 10 MTPA in five years. The net debt is Rs 4,993 crore at present and the cost of debt for nine month period till December 31, rose to 7.82% against 6.16% last year. The company expressed confidence that the net debt will not go beyond Rs 5,000 crore.
S Vaithiyanathan, Chief finance officer, said about Rs 7,800 crore out of Rs 9,800 crore were from free cash flow from operations.
The outlay for the quarter shot up for land acquisition efforts, among others. The company plans to double the clinker capacity in Kolimigundla to 6.30 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and double the cement capacity to 3 MTPA with 15 MW of waste heat recovery system (WHRS) at an estimated project cost of Rs 1,250 crore. This would improve total installed capacity of the company to 19 MTPA for clinker and 26 MTPA for cement.