Ramco Cements Limited (RCL) (Formerly known as Madras Cements Limited (MCL)), is the flagship company of The Ramco Group. The Company is a major player in the blended cement category in South India. I
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t is the fifth largest cement producer in the country. The main product of the Company is Portland Cement, manufactured in 10 state-of-the art production facilities including integrated cement plants and grinding units with a current total production capacity of 19.40 million MTPA. The Company has two subsidiaries, viz. Ramco Windfarms Limited and Ramco Industrial and Technology Services Limited.
The Company is engaged in manufacture of Cement, Ready Mix Concrete and Dry Mortar products. It caters mainly to the domestic markets. It sells cement in Sri Lanka through direct exports and Maldives through merchant exports. It is engaged in sale of surplus electricity generated from its windmills and thermal power plants after meeting its captive requirements. It produces Ready Mix Concrete and Dry Mortar products, alongside operating one of the largest wind farms in the country.
The Company was incorporated on July 03rd, 1957. Headquartered in Chennai, the Company commenced operations in the year 1961. It undertook to replace the 4 cement mills at its Ramasamyraja Nagar Works, by a single new Combidan Cement Mill', which was commissioned at the end of year, 1985. A 132 KVA sub-station and the limestone crushing plant were installed during the same year. The project was commissioned during December of the year 1986. Two D.G. sets were installed in the middle of the year 1988 to meet 60% of the unit's power requirement at Jayanthipuram. The Company had set up the 4 MW windmill farm in the year 1992 at Muppandal, Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu. Asia's largest one to be commissioned in the Private sector was set up. All the 16 wind turbines of the company were commissioned in March of the year 1993. In the same year 1993, an additional capacity was created by adding 8 Nos. wind turbines of 250 KW each at Muppandal wind mill farm taking the generation capacity to 6 MW. During the year 1994, MCL had upgraded the capacity of its Jayanthipuram Unit to 1.1 million tonnes and also upgraded the cement mills capacity in R. R. Nagar. The Company substantially increased the capacity of windmills by installation of 70 more windmills. In the year 1995, the company enhanced power generation capacity at Jayanthipuram unit to 15.3 MW by commissioning an additional diesel generator set to maintain normal production in view of frequent power-cut and power tripping. During the year 1997, MCL had commissioned its third cement plant in Alathiyur; it was the second in Tamil Nadu. The clinker plant of the Alathiyur unit was commissioned in March while the grinding unit was commissioned in May of the same year 1997. The Company had embarked into Ready Mix Concrete business in the year 1998. Also in the same year, MCL made tie-up with Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) for procuring slag, a blast furnance residue and a crucial input for slag cement.
MCL tied up with Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) for supply of gas and the fuel supply agreement was inked in 15th April of the year 1999. It also tied up with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) for supply of 25,000 cu mtrs of gas per day from its Nallore well, near Mannargudi in Tamil Nadu. In the same year 1999, another one tie-up was made with Vizag Steel Plant for supply of slag. During the year 1999-00, the company's slag grinding project at Jayanthipuram for manufacture of blended cement was commissioned and also the capacity of the Alathiyur unit was expanded by 0.2 million TPA. During the year 2000, the company had launched the Ramco Super Steel cement in Tamil Nadu. The Company's second unit at Alathiyur with a capacity of 15 lac tonnes was commissioned in January of the year 2001. The second klin at R.R Nagar was upgraded in May of the year 2001 with the installation of fixed inlet segment to the cooler, new calciner and modifying pre heater cyclone, thereby increasing the capacity of the unit to 11 lac TPA of blended cement. With the help of M.Tec, Germany, the company started new project Dry Motor Plant for manufacture of high technology construction products such as render, skimcoat and dry concrete and its production commenced from January of the year 2003 at Sriperumbudur. During 2004-05, The Company commissioned a 36 MW Thermal Power Plant at Alathiyur. The company, for the first time in India, commissioned a surface mine to modernise the mine operations at Ramasamyraja Nagar factory.
The Company decided to establish grinding units in the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal in May of the year 2007. During October, 2007, MCL earmarked Rs 1.05 billion investments for set up the grinding mill at Kolaghat in Midnapore, West Bengal. With an eye on diversification, MCL is planning to enter into industries such as sugar, pharmaceuticals, power & power equipments and textiles. As at March 2008, Madras Cements lines up Rs 15 billion expansion.
The Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 10 April 2009 incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary company for carrying out the business of manufacture and sale of Sugar and Allied Products, for which approval of the Shareholders was obtained at the Annual General Meeting held on 27 July, 2007.
The Board of Directors of Company its meeting held on 27 October 2009 divested shares in a wholly owned subsidiary, viz. MADRAS SUGARS LTD., which was incorporated for the purpose of carrying out sugar business.
Madras Cements' Ariyalur, Tamil Nadu plant started operations in 2009 with a capacity of 2 MTPA, which is well-equipped with modern quality control systems. Currently, Line 2 of the plant with a capacity of another 2 MTPA was commissioned in 2012.
The Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on 29 July 2013 formed a subsidiary company and transferred windmills of an aggregate capacity of 23.23 MW to the proposed Subsidiary Company. The Company's total wind farm capacity is 159.19 MW. The Shareholders of the Company at the Annual General Meeting held on 29 July 2013 passed a Special Resolution to change name of the Company from 'Madras Cements Limited' to 'The Ramco Cements Limited'.
In March 2018, Ramco Cements acquired a cement grinding unit from Ramco Industries Limited, which is having a capacity to grind 0.2 MTPA of cement, located in Kharagpur, West Bengal.
During FY 2019-20, the Company commissioned Kolaghat grinding unit in September 2019.
During FY 2020-21, the Company commissioned Phase-1 of the Waste Heat Recovery System with a capacity of 9 MW in September, 2020. It commissioned Phase-2 of the Waste Heat Recovery System with a capacity of 9 MW in February, 2021. The Company expanded its Kolaghat grinding unit with another line of grinding capacity of 1.05 MTPA, which costed Rs. 386 crores. It commissioned the Railway Siding in September, 2020.
The Company commenced commercial production at their Odisha grinding unit, which produced 0.80 million tonnes of cement
in FY 2021-22. In June, 2021 at Jayanthipuram plant, the Line III with a clinkerisation capacity of 1.5 MTPA and the Phase III of waste heat recovery system (WHRS) with a capacity of 9 MW project were commissioned. It completed integrated cement plant at Kalavatala Village in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh, which costed Rs. 2,400 crores. It completed the trial run up to clinkerisation of 2.25 MTPA capacity. During the year 2021-22, the Company launched a modernisation project at Ramasamy Raja Nagar plant, which would increase the clinkerisation capacity of the plant from 1.09 MTPA to 1.44 MTPA.
During year 2022-23, Company commissioned the Kiln Plant in June 2022 and Cement Mill in September 2022 at Kolimigundla Mandal in Andhra Pradesh. The First Phase of the WHRS of 6 MW capacity, comprising of Steam Turbine Generator along with Air Quenched Cooler Boiler was commissioned in December 2022. The second phase of the WHRS of 3 MW capacity comprising of preheater boiler was commissioned in March 2023. The Salem and Ramasamy Raja Nagar projects were commissioned during December 2022 and February 2023 respectively. The modernisation and establishment of Line III Ramasamy Raja Nagar Plant was commissioned in Mar' 23 and as a result, the Clinkerisation capacity of the plant increased from 1.10 MTPA to 2.14 MTPA and the cement manufacturing capacity of the plant increased from 2 MTPA to 3 MTPA. During the year 2022-23, the Company had incurred Rs. 1,765 crores towards capital expenditure.
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