Ramco Cements Ltd

The Ramco Cements Limited (formerly Madras Cements Ltd) is the FlagShip company of the Ramco Group, a well-known business group of South India. It is headquartered at Chennai. The main product of the company is Portland cement, manufactured in eight state-of-the art production facilities that includes Integrated Cement plants and Grinding units with a current total production capacity of 16.45 MTPA (out of which Satellite Grinding units capacity alone is 4 MTPA). The company is the fifth largest cement producer in the country. The company also produces Ready Mix Concrete and Dry Mortar products, and operates one of the largest wind farms in the country.

Products

It manufactures and markets ordinary Portland cement, Portland blast furnace slag cement, white cement and Portland Pozzolana cement. The export markets span countries around The INDIAN Ocean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Ramco Cements is one of the largest exporter of cement in India. The company's production facilities are spread across five integrated plants, four grinding units in India. Most of the plants have ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certification. In addition, KSR Nagar plant in Andhra Pradesh has received ISO 50001 certification and RR Nagar plant has received 5S (methodology) certification. The process is currently underway for the remaining plants.

Plants

Ramco Cement’s has five Cement manufacturing plants, 4 grinding units in India as per the company website. These facilities gradually came up over the years, as indicated below:

1961 :: Ramasamy Raja Nagar Plant, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu (200 TPD)

1970's :: Introduced dry process in raw mix preparation first time in India

1987 :: The second venture of RCL is its Jayanthipuram (Chillakallu) plant near Vijayawada in A.P., set up in 1987. The 3.65 MTPA plant employs the latest state-of-the-art technology.

1993 :: Ramco Windfarm at Muppandal in TN.

1995 :: Ramco Windfarm in Poolavadi near Coimbatore in 1995

1997 :: The third venture - Alathiyur in TN was set up in 1997 and expanded by addition of another line in 2001. The 3 MTPA plant is the most modern plant in the country.

1999 :: RCL commissioned the most sophisticated Ready Mix Concrete Plant in Medavakkam in South Chennai.

2002 :: a state-of-art Dry Mortar plant was commissioned near Sriperumpudur, Tamil Nadu which manufactures dry mortar, cement based putty and tile fix compound.

2005 :: Oothumalai and Mathod

2009 :: Ariyalur plant started operations in 2009 with a capacity of 2 MTPA. It is well-equipped with modern quality control systems.Currently Line 2 of the plant with a capacity of another 2 MTPA was commissioned in 2012.

2009 :: Chengalpet grinding unit with a capacity of 0.5 MTPA is located in Kanchipuram District.

2009 :: The Unit was set-up and commissioned in 2009 with the objective of serving the markets of Salem and its surrounding areas with an installed capacity of 1.6 MTPA

2010 :: Kolaghat unit with an installed capacity of 0.95 MTPA

2015 :: Vizag grinding unit with an installed capacity of 0.95 MTPA

Windfarms

The Ramco Cements Limited installed its first windmill in the year 1993, by setting up a 16 x 250 kW (4 MW) wind farm at Muppandal in the Southern tip of India. This was enhanced to 13 MW in the next two years by the addition of 36 x 250 kW wind electric generators. Muppandal has one of the highest wind potential in the country.

Based on the experience gained, Ramco Cements Limited expanded their wind farm capacity, by installing 69 numbers additional WEGs at Poolavadi which is near the Textile town of Coimbatore, where the wind potential is good.

Machines are installed during the year 1994-1996. These wind farms have the following type of WEGS.

The windmills installed during the year 1993-1996 are smaller capacity with a height of 30, 40 and 50 meters only. Total installed capacity during the above year both at Muppandal and Poolavadi site is 33.235 MW.

This capacity of 33.235 MW was the Single Largest Wind Farm in South East Asia at that time.

During the year 2005-2009, we have added up to 119.95 MW of capacity through windmills with latest technology and higher individual capacity machines.

We added 47 nos of VESTAS make 1650 KW machines with a height of 78 meters. Total capacity of VESTAS make 1650 KW machine is 77.55 MW.

Also we have added 53 nos of ENERCON make 800 KW machines at Pushpathur region which is around 26 km distance from Palani. ENERCON machines are Gear less technology with a height of 75 meters. Total capacity of ENERCON make 800 KW machine is 42.4 MW.

Hence the total installed windmill capacity in Tamil Nadu state is 153.185 MW. Among this, the energy from 22.785 MW capacity of windmill goes to the captive use of RRNagar & Ariyalur mines, Salem & Chengalpet grinding units and for Nagercoil packing plant. Moreover we are selling energy to Tamil Nadu Electricity board from the balance windmill capacity of 130.4 MW.

The Ramco Cements Limited (Formerly Madras Cements Ltd) has added Wind Electric Generators in the neighbouring state of Karnataka during the years 2004 – 2006, by installing 2 x 600 KW and 6 x 800 KW capacity Enercon make WEGs at GIM – II (West) and Vanni Vilas Sagar Region (Chitradurga district) to cater to the energy needs of our Mathod plant. Total installed windmill capacity in Karnataka state is 6.000 MW.

Now total installed Windmill capacity of The Ramco Cements Limited (Formerly Madras Cements Ltd) is with 159.185 MW (including subsidiaries) with 229 individual WEGs.

See also

• Ramco Systems
• Ramco Institute of Technology