Grasim Industries Ltd., a flagship company of the Aditya Birla Group celebrating 75 glorious years of its existence, has announced a Capex of Rs. 6,720 crore for FY 2023, including Rs. 3,542 crore for the Paints Business.

The paints business is focused on project execution and is on track to achieving the plant commissioning timelines. The business has obtained land possession at all its six sites. The civil construction of paints has commenced at four of its sites – Panipat, Ludhiana, Cheyyar, and Chamarajanagar and work at other sites will start soon after all the statutory approvals are received. Total Capex for Paints business stood at Rs. 825 crore till 30th June 2022 (Rs. 212 crore in Q1 FY23). 471 MWp of new capacities are expected to be commissioned in FY23.

Chemical Capex Plan

Capacity Expansion – Chlor-Alkali & VAPs  – Rs. 312 croreCaustic Soda Expansion from 1,311 KTPA –>1,530 KTPACapacity Expansion – Epoxy & ECH – Rs. 407 croreEpoxy Expansion from 123 KTPA –> 246 KTPAModernisation and Maintenance Capex – Rs. 544Paint Business – Rs. 3,542 crore

Source: Aditya Birla & India Chemical Business  

The company has announced its foray into B2B e-commerce platform for the building materials segment with an investment of around Rs. 2,000 crore over the next 5 years. The platform will primarily focus on MSMEs in the building materials segment with the potential to further extend to other relevant categories. The key value proposition would be an integrated procurement solution, including on-time delivery and a superior product range at competitive pricing.

The company had a consolidated Q1 FY23 revenue of Rs. 28,042 crore, up 41% and Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs. 1,933 crore, up 16%. The standalone Q1 FY23 quarterly revenue stood at Rs. 7,253 crore and PAT at Rs. 809 crore.

The India-centric demand for textiles remained strong during the quarter. The VSF business reported a sales volume of 197KT in Q1 FY23, up 10% QoQ and 76% YoY, with domestic sales accounting for 94% of the total sales volume. The 600 TPD brownfield plant at Vilayat contributed around 51KT of sales volume during the quarter.

The global caustic soda prices averaged higher at $769/MT in Q1 FY23 against $719/MT in Q4 FY22, driven by factors like supply chain disruption and higher energy prices. The prices started to soften towards the end of June and are currently at around $650/MT. The domestic caustic soda prices continued trending upwards, driven by higher global caustic soda prices, weak INR, and a stable demand environment.

Captive consumption of chlorine increased during the quarter with increased output of water treatment and sanitation products. However, weak demand in the other user industry segments like dyes and pigments contributed to negative realisation.

The Advanced Material business reported impressive sales volume growth of 35% YoY, though the significant increase in input prices impacted margins on a YoY basis. The business recorded sequential uptick in financial performance with an improvement in realisation and easing of some input costs.

To reinforce our commitment and improve our approach to becoming a more sustainable, greener, and climate-resilient organisation, we have adopted the Task Force on Climate- related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework.