Mumbai: Aditya Birla Group company UltraTech Cement Ltd is looking to acquire coal mines in Indonesia and South Africa to meet the increasing coal demands of group companies, its president and chief financial officer KC Birla said.

''At present, we are importing one million tonne of coal. The current prices of coal are $300. So we are open to acquiring coal mines," Birla said at a conference on the sidelines of its annual general meeting.

Coal accounts for 27 per cent of the cost of cement manufacturing.

Kumar Mangalam Birla , chairman of the Aditya Birla Group and UltraTech, said UltraTech has already spent Rs2,150 crore to add 90 million tonnes capacity and would be spending another Rs2,050 crore in the next three years.

Of the total investment, about Rs525 crore would go into a 92 MW thermal power plant at its Gujarat Cement Works. The group would set up three more thermal power projects with total generating capacity of 135 MW at its Andhra Pradesh Cement Works, Hirmi Cement Works in Chhattisgarh and Awarpur Cement Works in Maharashtra, he said.

The captive power plants would provide the company with 270 MW of thermal power, meeting 80 per cent of its needs against 22 per cent now, he pointed out.

The group will invest Rs470 crore in the extension of the Gujarat jetty and the new port terminal that will provide logistical support to the company for domestic and export markets.

UltraTech Cement will also spend Rs250 crore to set up 25-MW waste heat recovery systems across all units to generate power from waste gases.

About Rs287 crore has been earmarked for its mining unit, Rs40 crore for grinding unit and Rs572 crore for other measures.

Asserting that UltraTech does not intent to separate the ready mix concrete (RMC) business, Kumar Mangalam Birla said: ''We have a market share of more than 20 per cent in the RMC business."