ACC, part of the Switzerland-based Holcim Group, has achieved production stabilisation at the world's largest kiln at its Wadi plant, nearly five months after it was commissioned.

The world's second largest kiln with a capacity of 11,500 tonnes is located at Holcim Group's cement plant in St Genevieve in the US.

The Wadi kiln with a capacity of 12,500 tonnes a day will produce clinker for its two satellite grinding units at Thondebhavi, near Bangaluru, and Kudithini, near Bellary. The 1.6-million-tonne-per-annum (mtpa) grinding unit at Thondebhavi will produce fly ash-based Portland Pozzolana cement while the Kudithini plant will use the slag generated primarily by JSW Steel for producing 1.1 mtpa Portland slag cement.

The company has made a total investment of Rs 1,634 crore in the three projects. With the completion of expansion at Wadi and Chanda in Maharashtra, ACC's annual production capacity has increased by 25 per cent to 30 million tonnes (mt) from 24 mt logged last year. The company recently installed a new 7,000-tonne-a-day clinkering line in Chanda.

Mr Anoop Saxena, President, ACC, Wadi Cluster, said the Wadi plant, which is the largest ACC units, will contribute about Rs 10,000 crore over the next 20 years to the Karnataka exchequer by way of taxes and levies.

“The Wadi kiln has already exceeded its rated capacity to produce 13,189 tonnes of clinker on February 8 and further bettered its own record by registering an output of 13,300 tonnes on June 30,” he added.

ACC has filed for registering the 182-m tall preheat tower at the Wadi plant in the Guinness Book of World Record. Besides, the rotary kiln of 6 m in diameter and 96 m in length is the largest-moving machine on the earth, said Mr Saxena.

“All operations at Wadi are mammoth in scale and setting new trends and benchmarks. It has the largest limestone-mining operation, the largest captive power plant of 125 MW by a cement company, highest inward and outbound logistics and largest bulk-cement operations,” he said.

ACC first set up a cement plant at Wadi in 1968 and introduced energy-efficient pre-calcinator technology from Mitsubishi in 1978 in India. It increased the production capacity at Wadi to one mtpa in 1982 and has enhanced it to produce five mtpa of cement currently. The plant employs 1,400 people and accounts for 29 per cent of ACC's production.

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