India: Holcim expects the Indian construction market to more than double by 2020. According to one of the company's presentations made earlier in 2012, the Indian construction market will replace Japan as the third largest, after China and the US, by 2020, by which time, emerging markets will outweigh mature markets.

At US$360bn, India accounted for 5% of the US$7.2tn global construction market in 2010. However, by 2020, India is likely to capture a 7% market share, at US$840bn, of the US$12tn global market.

Holcim, which entered India post-2000, has its presence in the country through two established brands: ACC and Ambuja Cements. Collectively, these companies have the largest market share in India. The company currently has an Indian capacity of close to 57Mt/yr and is ahead of domestic giant Aditya Birla Group's UltraTech Cement, at 52Mt/yr.

Both have plans to augment capacities. UltraTech has plans to take its overall capacity to 75Mt by 2015. Holcim's Ambuja Cements will pump in around US$365m by 2013 to add more capacity.

According to India's 12th five year Plan (2012-17) document, the two segments most important to construction activity are infrastructure and housing. Since infrastructure spending is expected to go up to 9% of gross domestic product (GDP) or US$1tn for the Plan period (2012-17), this should translate into double-digit growth for the demand segment.

The Indian cement sector is the world's second largest, after China. During the current Plan (2007-12), cement players invested around US$10bn to add fresh capacities of 150Mt. According to the 12th Plan documents on the industry, the sector would need to increase capacity to 470Mt by 2017.