Aditya Birla Group firm Grasim Industries Ltd has earmarked a capital expenditure (capex) of ₹2,600 for the current financial year, which would be mainly for its viscose staple fibre (VSF) and chemicals business, said the group's Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla.

Besides, the company would also expand its solar business where its cumulative installed capacity is expected to rise to 845 megawatt (MW) by 2022-23, based on the current pipeline.

"The company has earmarked an amount of over ₹2,600 crore as the capital expenditure for FY22," said Birla while addressing the shareholders in the annual general meeting (AGM) of Grasim Industries.

This capex is in addition to the investments announced by Grasim's step-down subsidiary as its UltraTech and Aditya Birla Capital.

Earlier this month, for cement-making firm UltraTech, a growth plan of 19.8 million tonnes with an investment of over ₹6,500 crore was announced.

Grasim, which had annoyed earlier this year in January to enter into the paint business, said it is making progress in line with the plans.

"For the paint business, the company has approved an initial capex of ₹5,000 crore which will be invested over the next three years. We are currently in the process of carefully identifying plant sites that are close to consumption hubs," said Birla.

While talking about its solar business, Birla said it is increasing its focus on the renewable power mix in each of the large businesses of the Aditya Birla Group (ABG).

"We have tripled our capacity in the past two years further aided by the Group’s focus on increasing the share of the renewable power mix in each of our large ABG businesses.

"The cumulative installed capacity is expected to rise to 845 MW by FY23 based on the current pipeline," he said.

For the financial year ended March 31, ABG's solar power business contains a portfolio of solar assets across the states with the cumulative installed capacity of 502 MW, he added.

Sharing update over the expansion of its projects at Vilayat, Gujarat, which entails an investment of over ₹3,500 crore, Birla said trial production has started at the new brownfield project.

"With this expansion, Vilayat will become one of the largest-single-location VSF facilities in the world with state-of-the-art technology delivering world-class fibre to Indian spinners," he added.

This 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.

On the chemicals segment, Biral said the global demand for caustic soda was impacted mainly because of demand weakness from end-user industries, which resulted in a subdued pricing environment.

"The core focus in the chlorine value-added products segment is to improve the scale of integration from 28 per cent in FY21 to 40 per cent by 2025, by enriching the product mix," he added.

It is already witnessing a strong demand in the advanced materials business, and Grasim has decided to double its capacity given the long-term growth potential.

"In the long term, the endeavour will be to enhance our value-added products portfolio to create a meaningful speciality chemicals segment in Grasim. Our aim is to increase the share to 40 per cent for both VSF and chlorine value-added products by 2025," said Birla.

Grasim Industries is the flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group, with diversified business across sectors.

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