Grasim sets aside ~2,600 cr in FY22 for PSF business

Aditya Birla group firm Grasim has earmarked over ~2,600 crore as capital expenditure (capex) for financial year 2021-22 in the polyester staple fibre (PSF) business. This will be in addition to the company’s earlier announcement that it will invest ~5,000 crore in its paint business over three years.

“We are currently in the process of carefully identifying plant sites that are close to consumption hubs for the paint business,” Aditya Birla Group Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla said while addressing the company’s shareholders on Friday.

Like other top conglomerates, the group is also investing in the renewable energy business. “Our solar power business contains a portfolio of solar assets across states with a cumulative installed capacity at 502 Mw in FY21. We have tripled our capacity in the last two years, aided by the group’s focus on increasing the share of the renewable power mix in each of our large ABG businesses,” Birla said.

The cumulative installed capacity is expected to rise to 845 Mw by FY23, based on the current pipeline, Birla added.

On its viscose staple fibre (VSF) business, Birla said trial production has started at the new brownfield Vilayat project. With this, 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 said.

“This expansion will increase Grasim’s VSF capacity by about 40 per cent. It will cater to the growing demand for sustainable man-made cellulosic fibres in the country,” he said.

The Vilayat expansion project entailed an investment of over ~3,500 crore. The capacity utilisation of the business recouped from single-digit utilisation levels to full utilisation levels towards the end of the year, Birla said.

“In the long term, the endeavour will be to

"THE EXPANSION AT VILAYAT WILL INCREASE GRASIM’S VSF CAPACITY BY ABOUT 40%. IT WILL CATER TO THE GROWING DEMAND FOR SUSTAINABLE MAN-MADE CELLULOSIC FIBRES IN THE COUNTRY" KUMAR MANGALAM BIRLA, Chairman of Aditya Birla Group

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 valueadded products by 2025,” he said.

Earlier, Birla had announced a capex of up to $3 billion in the next five years for Hindalco to increase its capacity in India and overseas.

Part of the capex will be deployed by Hindalco subsidiary Novelis Inc for its autofinishing lines in the US and China as well as for rolling and recycling capacity expansion in Brazil.