Birla Corporation Is Mulling Setting up Its First Overseas Cement Plant in Ethiopia

Birla Corporation, a flagship company of the M P Birla Group, is mulling setting up its first overseas cement plant in Ethiopia, a top company official said here Thursday. The company has formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, Birla Corp Cement Manufacturing Plc, in the African country and bagged the licence for limestone mining. It has also applied for a coal mining permit there, company chairman Harsh V Lodha told mediapersons on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting. "We are mulling overseas plans. We have already set up a subsidiary to apply for the required licences, " Lodha said. The company has started looking for overseas ventures following the Jodhpur High Court s ban on limestone mining at its Chanderia plant in Rajasthan since August last year. Once the Kolkata-based company gets the coal mining permit, it would conduct a market study to firm up the next step. The company is also looking at other overseas ventures, but Lodha did not disclose details. Lodha said the company s performance has been affected as it is procuring raw materials from distant areas for the Chanderia Cement plant, whose capacity has been increased by 1.2 million tonnes in March. Source: uaecement