Grasim Industries, an Aditya Birla Group company, has completed ₹3,500-crore brownfield expansion at Vilayat in Gujarat and has also commenced trial production.
With this expansion, Vilayat will become one of the largest single-location Viscose Staple Fibre facilities in the world with modern technology delivering quality fibre to Indian spinners.
VSF capacity
The expansion will increase Grasim’s VSF capacity by about 40 per cent which will cater to the growing demand for sustainable manmade cellulosic fibres in the country.
Addressing the company’s shareholders at the annual meeting, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairman, Grasim Industries, said the company has accelerated its innovative product pipeline with the launch of Liva-Reviva, which utilises cotton waste to produce viscose fibre, based on circularity with an endeavour to create a Green Grasim.
The pandemic presented an opportunity to relook at cost structures to drive efficiency and the company has reduced fixed and variable costs significantly during the year, he added.
Caustic soda demand
In the chemicals business, Birla said the global demand for caustic soda was impacted mainly because of weak demand from end-user industries, which resulted in a subdued pricing environment. In the domestic market, the realisations were under pressure because of excess domestic supply and the continuous flow of caustic soda imports, he said.
The company has decided to double the capacity of advanced material production to meet the growing demand driven by end-user segments such as auto and wind power while realisations have been much better, he added.
The company has earmarked over ₹2,600 crore as the capital expenditure for this fiscal. It has approved an initial capex of ₹5,000 crore over the next three years. “We are currently in the process of carefully identifying plant sites that are close to consumption hubs,” he said.
Grasim’s solar power business contains a portfolio of solar assets across the states with a cumulative installed capacity at 502MW in FY21. It had tripled capacity in the last two years further aided by the Group’s focus on increasing the share of the renewable power mix in each of large Aditya Birla Group businesses. The cumulative installed capacity is expected to rise to 845 MW by FY23 based on the current pipeline, said Birla.