India Inc capex story gets cement to semicon push

Corporate India is starting to step up its capital expenditure plans amid government incentives and signs of rising demand, company executives and analysts have indicated.

This coincides with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently citing a double-digit growth in private capital expenditure. Healthy balance sheets of banks and corporates, along with increasing capacity utilisation and improving business sentiment, are contributing to a favourable environment for sustained growth in private sector investments, the RBI said in its policy last week.

The private capex momentum is being led by conglomerates such as Tatas, Reliance Industries and Adani group,among others, in areas ranging from new energy and power generation to automobiles and semiconductors.

The Tata group, which has announced plans to invest $14 billion in two semiconductor plants in Gujarat and Assam, is expected to invest up to $120 billion in the coming years across sectors including renewable energy, electric vehicles and power generation.

The Adani Group, between five of its portfolio firms - Adani Green Energy, Adani Energy Solutions, Adani Ports & SEZ, Ambuja Cements and ACC could invest around $100 billion over the next decade towards achieving energy transition, according to a recent announcement.

Reliance Industries had earlier announced plans to invest up to $10 billion (₹83,000 crore approximately) in building the new energy ecosystem. RIL's capital expenditure for the quarter ended December 2023 was ₹30,102 crore ($3.6 billion).

The Aditya Birla group firm Hindalco is investing ₹8,000 crore to set up a 2 million tonne greenfield alumina refinery in Odisha.