Displaying items by tag: ACC
India: According to Cogencis MoneyWire, the Madras High Court has dismissed ACC's writ petition against a demand notice regarding a 50% royalty due over a mining lease for limestone removal from government-owned lands.
The royalty demand was for US$1.17m for 1988 - 1998. ACC was granted the lease to mine limestone from 140,000m2 of land at Madukkarai Village in Tamil Nadu and was subsequently granted another mining lease. According to local media, initially a lessee has to pay royalty at the rate of 50%, after which it was obligatory on the part of every leaseholder to pay 100% royalty.
India: According to the United News of India, ACC has suspended limestone mining operations at its Chaibasa plant in Jharkhand because of regulatory issues. ''The limestone mining operations at the Chaibasa plant have been suspended on account of the requirement of further clearances from the government of Jharkhand,'' said ACC in a statement.
The company is in discussion with the concerned authorities and expects that limestone mining operations would resume shortly. Cement grinding continues with the transfer of clinker from sister cement plants and the purchase of clinker. ACC said that the impact of the closure of the mining operations at Chaibasa is not expected to be material.
ACC resumes limestone mining operations at Bargarh
18 June 2015India: ACC resumed limestone mining operations at Bargarh, Odisha, after about nine months, on 17 June 2015.
ACC stopped mining at Bargarh in October 2014 following a government notice to suspend operations at the plant. The company stopped clinker production at its Chaibasa, Jharkhand, and Bargarh plants, but continued to operate the grinding units associated with these. "The impact of the closure was not material since cement grinding continued with the transfer of clinker from sister works and clinker purchases," said ACC.
State governments were issued orders to stop mining, following a Supreme Court judgement in the matter of Goa Foundation versus Union of India and Others and in Common Cause versus Union of India on the deemed renewal of mining leases and a subsequent amendment to The Mineral Concession Rules 1960.
ACC resumed limestone mining operations following terms of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Ordinance 2015.
India: According to the Economic Times, the waste from city kitchens will soon be recycled into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) at waste processing plants in Kalaburagi City, Karnataka. The RDF from the 10 upcoming waste processing plants in Kalaburagi will be given to cement companies for use as fuel and the biodegradable waste will be used as manure by farmers.
The joint initiative taken up by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development & Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) has had agreements with cement manufacturers such as ACC, Vicat Sagar and UltraTech in Kalaburagi.
"Plastic-like material is a good alternative for fossil fuel as it can replace up to 20% of fossil fuel in terms of energy," said KSPCB chairman Vaman Acharya. The pact is yet to be signed and talks between the stakeholders is in the final stages. Transport costs for the RDF are estimated to be less than US$0.016/kg.
The idea to use RDF instead of fossil fuel in Kalaburagi cement plants was first conceived by Hasiru Dala, a Bengaluru-based non profit organisation working on waste management. It has provided 100t of combustible waste to Zuari Cements' plant in Andhra Pradesh in the past two months. Nalini Shekar, founder of Hasiru Dala, said that the material was not sold to the cement plant for a price, but Zuari paid for packaging and transportation. Households have been asked to segregate waste and hand it to BBMP garbage collectors to make the process easier.
ACC’s net profit hit by low demand
15 April 2015India: ACC has reported a 40.8% drop in its consolidated net profit to US$37.9m for the quarter that ended on 31 March 2015 owing to slack demand in the domestic market. It had posted net profit of US$64.1m during the same period of 2014.
"With slack demand for cement from infrastructure and the general construction sector in the January - March quarter, the overall cement sales volumes registered a decline compared with the corresponding period of 2014," said the company in a statement. "The overall operating costs for cement business registered an increase of 3.6% year-on-year."
The company's total consolidated turnover for the quarter saw a 2.75% decline to US$462m compared with US$475m in the same period of 2014. Sales volumes declined to 5.82Mt as against 6.48Mt in 2014. Its total income from operations increased by 1.75% year-on-year to US$493m. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grew by 18.3% to US$79.7m. "EBITDA for the quarter reflects continued margin improvements," said ACC's statement. During the quarter, ACC also received US$22.4m as an incentive from the Jharkhand government following a high court order, which helped push up its EBITDA.
ACC is hopeful that cement demand will improve in the next two quarters and said that its focus will continue to be on performance. "We see a modest but steady revival for the Indian economy in 2015. This will have a positive impact on infrastructure, housing and construction sectors and will increase the demand for cement," said ACC chairman NS Sekhsaria. The company is now looking forward to commission its clinker plant and allied grinding plant at its Jamul plant in Durg, Chhattisgarh by the end of 2015.
Nigeria: Dangote Cement has announced the appointment of Onne Van der Weijde as its new managing director. According to Dangote, the appointment is in furtherance of the implementation of strategies put in place to drive operational efficiency, support its ambitious growth strategies and delivering shareholder value.
Van der Weijde, who has a wealth of experience from working as the managing director of India's Ambuja Cement, will ensure that strategic, operational and brand synergies are maintained, while underlining renewed management focus on all customer segments. He worked to improve the profit and consolidation of the business and was also responsible for the acquisition and growth in marketing and sales.
As a director and business planning manager of Holcim (Australia), he developed a business presence in southeast Asia through joint ventures and acquisitions, providing support in the management of existing operations in the region. In addition to his role as manager, he was also the COO of India's ACC and a member of the senior management team of Holcim. He also became the CFO of Holcim (Indonesia). He was responsible for treasury, reporting, business planning, accounts and procurements. Van der Weijde represented Holcim in Switzerland as the senior vice president. He managed the international tax, audit, marketing and IT functions of Holcim (Asia).
UltraTech and Hindalco Industries win coal mines in India’s auction
20 February 2015India: Day six of India's coal block auctions, on 19 February 2015, saw UltraTech Cement win the Bicharpur mine in Madhya Pradesh, which has 29.1Mt of coal reserves, for a bid of US$48.3/t. UltraTech beat ACC, Hindalco Industries, Jaypee Cement and OCL India, among others.
Aditya Birla Group's Hindalco Industries won the Gare Palma IV-5 block for US$56.3/t. The mine has estimated extractable reserves of 42.4Mt. It beat a number of rivals, including Ambuja Cement. Jindal Power Ltd won the Gare Palma IV-2 and 3 coal mines in Chhattisgarh, which have extractable coal reserves of 156Mt, for an estimated US$270m.
Potential merger of Ambuja Cement, ACC and Lafarge India
19 February 2015India: Ambuja Cement, ACC and Lafarge India may merge as part of the proposed global merger of Lafarge and Holcim, according to local media. The plan is still at an early stage and LafargeHolcim have mandated investment bank Lazard to advise on the restructuring of their Indian operations. The most likely option is the merger of ACC, Ambuja and Lafarge India into one listed entity to create the largest cement company in India. The combined cement production capacity of the three subsidiaries would be some 70Mt/yr.
As part of the new restructuring proposal, LafargeHolcim may reassess Holcim's restructuring of ACC and Ambuja, which was announced in 2014 and is currently incomplete. As part of the plan, shareholders of Ambuja had approved ACC's stake acquisition from Holcim.
LafargeHolcim begin asset divestments
17 October 2014India: Holcim and Lafarge have begun an internal process in India to identify the assets that must be divested to adhere to the requirements of India's competition regulator, the Competition Commission of India.
Both companies are running processes to identify the plants and operations that are not linked to their strategic global plans. The process will also look at consolidation of operations and processes, which will lead to strategic alignment of both the companies in India to create a future-ready organisation with uniform processes.
In India, Lafarge, which has around 5Mt/yr cement capacity, is dwarfed by Holcim with a capacity of 47Mt/yr through its subsidiary companies Ambuja Cement and Associated Cement Companies (ACC), cornering roughly 12% of the 350Mt/yr Indian cement market. Aditya Birla Group's UltraTech is India's largest cement maker with a 62Mt/yr capacity.
Harish Badami appointed as CEO and managing director at ACC
20 August 2014India: Harish Badami has taken over as CEO and managing director of ACC effective from 13 August 2014. The former CEO and managing director, Kuldip Kaura, left his position on the same date. The board of ACC, in which Holcim has a majority stake, had approved Badami's appointment in June 2014.
Immediately before joining ACC on 1 August 2014, Badami had served as managing director of Celanese India. He has held similar positions of president and managing director of Dow Chemical India, as well as managing director of Rohm and Haas India, before its acquisition in 2009 by Dow Chemical.