The Hindu : Business : Malabar Cements registers record profit in first eight months

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Thursday, Jan 04, 2007
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Malabar Cements registers record profit in first eight months

G. Prabhakaran

Modernisation of mining equipment taken up

PALAKKAD: The State public sector Malabar Cements Limited (MCL) at Walayar here has registered a record profit of Rs.15.05 crore in the first eight months of the current financial year. Last year, the company registered a profit of Rs. 5.03 crore.

Talking to The Hindu here, managing director K.S. Sreenivas said the company's profit would cross Rs.20 crore in the current financial year. The turnover between April and December, 2006, had risen to Rs.162 crore.

The Cherthala grinding unit of the company, which was started in 2003, registered a profit of Rs.1.5 crore for the first time in the first half-year of the current financial year, he said.

The company has achieved a maximum of 0.68 million tonne production of cement per annum. In the current financial year, the production is likely to reach 0.75 million tonnes.

But the long-term aim of the company is to produce 1 million tonne of cement annually.

The managing director said after he took over in August 2006, a number of measures were taken for modernisation and cost-cutting of cement production.

He said modernisation of mining equipment was taken up as an urgent measure. The major mining equipment were old and the maintenance cost of these machines was exorbitantly high.

An excavator at a cost of Rs.2 crore and two compressors at a cost of Rs.3.5 crore were bought for mining operations.

The company's budgeted material handling requirement is about 60,000 tonnes of limestone and 50,000 tonnes of overburden per month.

He said two more wagon loading machines had been procured.

Mr. Srinivas said most cement factories had installed online XRF analyser for process control. Some plants were even using Gama Rays analyser for analysing the quality of limestone before feeding it into the crusher.

Modern plants use Robo Lab for sampling, analysing and for corrective action. However, MCL cannot afford to purchase such expensive materials.

But, to begin with the company will procure an X-Ray Analyser at a cost of Rs.1.5 crore.

Due to increase in the complexity of raw materials and limited resources of limestone, it is essential to initiate corrective action then and there. The MCL is getting limestone from its mines, sweetener grade limestone, cement grade limestone and laterite from different sources. So the quality of the materials is analysed immediately for preparing suitable raw mix for the kiln. To maintain the quality, we have to analyse the samples in the shortest time possible. So an X-Ray Analyser is urgently required.

He said the company had one mechanical packer and one electronic packer. The electronic packer was mainly being used for truck loading and mechanical packer for wagon loading. The mechanical packer is becoming obsolete and there is frequent breakdown of the equipment and also the weight variation of packed cement bags are more. So a new electronic packer at a cost of Rs.50 lakh is being installed.

Mr. Srinivas said as per the norms fixed by the State Pollution Control Board, the dust emission level from 150 mg per Nm3 to 50 mg Nm3 has to be achieved. The company has already installed clinker cooler ESP at a cost of Rs.5.5 crore to bring down emission level of kiln.

Asked about the steps taken by the Company to inquire into the report of the Controller and Auditor General about irregularities in the company for the last five years to the tune of Rs.364 crore, the Managing Director said a detailed reply to the charges has been given to the CAG. Some actions are being taken to review some of the old contracts.

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