BS reported that Hyderabad based Deccan Cements Limited has embarked on a INR 432 crore capital expenditure plan, which involves expanding the production capacity at its existing facility in Nalgonda district, setting up an 18 MW captive thermal power plant to cater to cement manufacturing, besides putting up a railway siding to reinforce its infrastructure in cement dispatches as well as inward materials like coal, slag and gypsum.

Mr MB Raju chairman of Deccan Cements said that "We are adding 1.3 million tonnes capacity to the existing 0.7 million tonnes, with special emphasis on blended cements, ordinary portland cement and specialty cements. The Brownfield expansion will be commissioned in August 2008 and commercial production would begin in September 2008, with an additional 500,000 tonnes to start with."

Mr Raju said that the captive thermal power plant, which was expected to be commissioned by this year end, would take its aggregate generating capacity to 27.5 MW. It currently has 4.5 MW hydel power and 5 MW wind power plants in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. He added that "We require around 22 MW for captive use and the surplus will be earmarked for merchant sales."

Deccan Cement has clocked a net profit of INR 10.93 crore for the January to March 2008 quarter up by 37.14% YoY as compared with INR 7.97 crore during January to March 2007 quarter. Its total income during the quarter grew by 15.19% YoY to INR 54.51 crore as against INR 47.32 crore.

For the full year, its net profit touched INR 47.96 crore up by 68.75% YoY as against INR 28.42 crore, while total income was up by 22.24% YoY to INR 212.25 crore as against INR 173.62 crore.