The Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation (TANCEM) has expanded the capacity at its Ariyalur complex at an investment of Rs 809 crore. With this, its total cement production increases to 17 lakh tpa from seven lakh tpa.
TANCEM has two manufacturing plants — one at Ariyalur district with five lakh tpa capacity and another at Alangulam in Virudhunagar district with two lakh tonne in Tamil Nadu. A new plant has been established in the premises of the existing plant at Ariyalur.
The expanded facility, which will produce about 10 lakh tpa from FY21, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on 1 October 2019. The expansion will generate job opportunities for 250 people directly and 1,000 people indirectly.
TANCEM has been supplying cement to the District Rural Development Agency and 116 other government departments at prices below the prevailing market rate. It supplied 74 percent of its production, i.e., 4.07 lakh tonne, to government departments in FY19. This included 488 tonne of ordinary portland cement (OPC) and 4,06,792 tonne of pozzolana portland cement (PPC).
