22 January 2015
Trinidad Cement’s manager appears on US$50m fraud charge 22 January 2015
Trinidad & Tobago: The manager of Trinidad Cement Limited's Employees Credit Union, Darren Singh has been denied bail after he appeared before a Port-of-Spain Magistrate charged with fraudulently transferring US$50m from the credit union's Unit Trust Corporation account to a Republic Bank account.
It is alleged that Singh, with intent to defraud, caused the transfer of US$50m from the credit union UTC's account to a Republic Bank account at Tropical Plaza, Pointe-a-Pierre in the name of TCL Credit Union on 18 January 2013, using a forged UTC wire transfer.
Prosecutor Callister Charles objected to bail being granted on the basis of the nature and seriousness of the offence, as well as allegations that threats had been made to witnesses in the case. Singh's attorney Candice Lopez countered that her client was a married man with five children and was the sole breadwinner of the family. She also said that Singh was the manager of the TCL Credit Union, had no previous convictions and was prepared to abide by any condition laid down by the court.
India: Cement companies that operate in East Jaintia Hills District, Meghalaya State face a precarious situation due to a ban imposed by National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the extraction and transportation of coal. As coal is a major fuel used by the cement plants in the region, its non-availability threatens to close the plants.
"Coal demand from cement plants is huge and if there is no supply, all the cement companies will have no other option but to shut down their plants," said a representative at one of the cement plants affected by the ban. He lamented that the NGT court had lifted the ban on transportation of the assessed and extracted coal for transportation to Beltola District, Assam State, only. "However, the cement plants in East Jaintia Hills have not received any coal due to the non-availability of a weighbridge in the district," he said. "Approximately 2000 - 2500 trucks are seen transporting coal to Assam every day."
Lafarge India to buy back 14% stake from Barings Asia 22 January 2015
India: Lafarge India has begun the process of buying back the 14% stake it sold to global private equity investor Barings Asia in May 2013 for US$265m. This comes about nine months after Lafarge and Switzerland's Holcim announced their intention to merge their global assets, including those in India.
The move is part of the sale agreement that Lafarge signed with Barings Asia, which said that any changes in shareholding structure will trigger the buy-back clause. According to local media, the process has just started and may take a few months. Once the Competition Commission (CC) has cleared the LafargeHolcim merger proposal, the process is expected to gather steam.
JK Lakshmi's US$276m Durg cement plant starts production 22 January 2015
India: Built at a cost of more than US$276m, JK Lakshmi Cement's new Durg cement plant in Chhattisgarh has started production.
The plant has an installed capacity of nearly 2.7Mt/yr. Following commissioning, JK Lakshmi Cement's installed cement production capacity stands at 9.3Mt/yr. A part of the US$4bn JK Organisation, the Durg plant will produce various types of cement, including Ordinary Portland cement, Portland pozzolana cement and slag cement.
The Durg project had in 2013 attracted the wrath of the local inhabitants, who set fire to part of the under-construction plant. They were reportedly angered by the reluctance of JK Lakshmi Cement to give jobs to people affected by the project. This caused serious damages at the construction site.