NTPC to foray into cement manufacturing

India’s largest power generation utility NTPC plans to foray into cement manufacturing to meet its environmental norms. The expansion in cement manufacturing will help NTPC to achieve twin objectives of using fly ash and creating captive demand for electricity.
 
NTPC has total generation capacity of 48,028 MW across its 19 coal-fired plants. The company is offering partnership to build cement manufacturing plants in the vicinity of power plants on BOO (build-own-operate) basis. The partners will sign long term contracts with NTPC and will be responsible for the products marketing and selling.
 
A cement manufacturing foray for NTPC is necessary to meet Ministry of Environment’s norm of utilising 100 per cent ash. The company produces 65 million tonnes of fly ash, part of which is used for making bricks and land-filling.
 
NTPC has also felt the heat of decline in thermal power demand from power distribution companies (DISCOMs) and oversupply of capacity. Besides the JV for cement manufacturing, it will help NTPC to find consumers for generating capacity.
 
For Q3FY17, NTPC’s revenues increased 10.1 per cent YoY, aided by strong revenue growth from power generation segment. However, on a sequential basis, the revenue growth remained flat.