15 April 2014
Ambuja Cements to set up three new plants 15 April 2014
India: Ambuja Cements will invest US$133m in 2014 from internal funds in order to partially finance its on-going capacity expansion projects.
"2014 will see capital expenditure worth US$133m, over and above the US$120m investment made in 2013. The entire proposed expenditure will be financed by internal funds," Ambuja Cements said in its annual report.
At present, Ambuja Cements has a cement production capacity of 27.25Mt/yr. It is setting up three 1.5Mt/yr capacity greenfield cement plants in Rajsthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Ambuja Cements is investing US$581m for setting up the three new plants. The company is also adding 0.8Mt/yr of clinker capacity in West Bengal and Rajasthan.
Cement monopoly is choking housing sector 15 April 2014
Nigeria: Property firm Haven Homes Ltd is worried that the exorbitant price and low availability of cement in Nigeria will slow the pace of housing construction, lamenting that just a few firms have monopolised cement production.
"At the moment only Dangote Cement and Lafarge Cement are consistently producing cement in the entire country. For a population of 160 million that is not good enough, that sort of monopoly makes the product too expensive," said Tayo Sonuga, Haven Homes' managing director and CEO. "Cement is too important to be left to the vagaries of private or public monopoly. You cannot build without cement so the government cannot remain silent about this matter. It calls for urgent action."
Shree Cement on expansion drive 15 April 2014
India: Shree Cement plans to increase its cement production capacity to 20Mt/yr by 2015, up from 13.5Mt/yr in 2013.
Shree Cements will construct an integrated cement plant in Chhattisgarh for US$282m, a grinding plant in Bihar for US$82.9m and is increasing the cement production capacity at its plant in Rajasthan.
"The Chhattisgarh plant could be commissioned by April 2015, while the Bihar unit could be in operation as soon as May 2014. We are also on the verge of completing the expansion at Rajasthan," said H M Bangur, managing director of Shree Cement.