H & R Johnson (India) has invested Rs 225 crore for the expansion of its Silica joint venture unit in Andhra Pradesh.
The unit, located near Eluru in the West Godavari district, has already commenced production of large format vitrified tiles under Marbonite brand, Mr Anoop Sreekumar, Senior General Manager – Marketing, Johnson told newspersons here on Friday.
The capacity of the plant has been increased from 5.8 million sq.m to 9 million sq.m. “We hope to achieve full capacity production by the third quarter of this financial year. The investment in Andhra Pradesh is a corridor to reach eastern and southern markets,” he said.
The company, a division of Prism Cement Ltd, was expecting the capacity expansion to result in an addition of Rs 300 crore revenue.
The total production capacity of the company, which posted revenue of Rs 1,729 crore, would also go up to 51 million sq.m from 46 million sq.m, he added.
In addition to Silica unit, Johnson operates one more plant in AP at Narayanpur in Krishna district and one each in Kunigal (Karnataka) and Karikal (Tamil Nadu).
On the industry scenario, Mr Sreekumar said compared to last year, the production costs had gone up by over 25 per cent due to increase in cost of raw materials and energy.
Johnson contributes 35 per cent of total revenues of Prism Cement Ltd, he added.