Kolkata/ Bhubaneswar: My Home Industries Limited (MHI), a 50:50 joint venture between the Hyderabad-based My Home Group and Ireland's building material major CRH Plc, plans to scale up its cement production capacity from the existing five million tonne per annum (mtpa) to 15 mtpa by 2016.

MHI, known for its Maha Shakthi' brand of cement, would undertake this capacity expansion at a cost of $1 billion (around Rs 4,500 crore).

Addressing media persons here at the launch of the Maha Shakthi cement in Orissa, Rameswar Rao Jupally, chairman and managing director, MHI said, “We are looking to expand our cement production capacity from five mtpa at present to 15 mtpa and this capacity expansion would cost us $1 billion (around Rs 4,500 crore). The capacity expansion would come through greenfield expansion and also acquisition of brownfield cement units within the country.”

Presently, the company has three cement manufacturing units at Mellachruvu in Nalagonda district of Andhra Pradesh with a combined capacity of 3.2 mtpa. Besides, it has a cement grinding unit with 1.5 mtpa capacity at Mulkapalli in Visakhapatnam district. MHI has, so far, been selling its Maha Shakthi cement in those areas of the state bordering Andhra Pradesh.

“We are currently selling over 70,000 tonnes of cement per month in the Orissa market and we have targeted to take it up to 1.2 lakh tonnes by the end of the current financial year”, R P Singh, senior president, MHI. Compared to Andhra Pradesh, which has a cement consumption rate of 20 lakh tonnes per month, Orissa's cement consumption stands at only five lakh tonnes per month.

The company which considers Orissa as one of its primary markets, is looking to consolidate its position in the state.

“We have already set up an office in Orissa and have hired 34 people who would be involved in the marketing of 'Maha Shakthi' cement. The company would sell its product through a network of around 400 dealers in the state”, Jupally said.Besides cement marketing, My Home Constructions, a flagship company of the My Home Group plans to set up an integrated township project consisting residential projects for the middle and upper middle class. The details of this project are yet to be worked out.