HeidelbergCement India Ltd., a unit of the world’s third-largest cement maker, is seeking to form joint ventures to secure coal supplies for a planned 12 billion rupee ($265 million) expansion.
The local unit of Germany’s Heidelberg AG plans to double capacity to 6 million tons by 2012 to tap demand that is expected to grow as much as 10 percent annually over the next five years, Managing Director Ashish Guha said. The company used coal worth 740 million rupees ($16 million) in 2009, according to its annual report.
“We will have to link our coal supply to someone for long- term supply or get into a joint venture to look into mining,” Guha said in an interview. “Given our current capacity, coal mine sizes are too large for us to mine on our own.”
HeidelbergCement India shares fell 1.6 percent to 48.55 rupees as of 2:34 p.m. in Mumbai. The stock has advanced 8 percent this year, compared with a 14 percent gain in the benchmark index.
The company, based in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, has four plants in India.
Indian cement makers will raise capacity to about 375 million metric tons in the next five years as the government increases spending on building highways, ports, airports and utilities, Guha said. Asia’s third-largest economy needs to spend about $1 trillion on infrastructure from April 2012 to March 2017, twice the amount the nation’s Planning Commission recommended in the previous five years.
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