Displaying items by tag: ACC

Austria: Ghassan Broummana has been appointed managing director of A TEC Group from 1 October 2013. As managing director Broummana will be responsible for sales and marketing within the A TEC and A TEC GRECO group.

Broummana started his career in 1987 designing and starting-up cement plants. In 1996 he joined Holcim Group Support in Switzerland where he developed and implemented various corporate initiatives. In 2004, he moved to Holcim's subsidiary in Thailand, Siam City Cement, to start up a new business unit preparing alternative fuels and raw materials from industrial and household waste.

In 2009 Broummana joined the managing committee and executive committee respectively of Holcim's subsidiaries in India, ACC and Ambuja Cements. Here he restructured Techport, the unified technical support service centre that provides expertise to both ACC and Ambuja Cements with the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of over 25 integrated cement plants and grinding stations and managing all the major capital expenditure projects for both companies.

Broummana holds a Diploma in Electrical Engineering and a Diploma in Wirtschafts-Ingenieur (MBA) from the University of Dortmund. He has also completed a 'Program for Executive Development' at IMD-Lausanne and 'Advanced Management Program' at Harvard Business School, US.

India: ACC will set up a 1.5Mt/yr cement grinding plant in Kharagpur in West Midnapore district, its Chief Executive (East) Vivek Chawla has announced. Building of the US$88.4m project is planned to start by January 2014.

"The company will invest US$88.4m for setting up the 1.5Mt/yr factory at Kharagpur," said Chawla.

India: Multinational buildings material producer Holcim has released plans to simplify its structure in India by merging Holcim India with its subsidiary Ambuja Cements. Both Holcim's Indian subsidiaries, Ambuja and ACC, have seen net profits fall in the second quarter of 2013.

Holcim intends to increase its shares in Ambuja to 61.39% and Ambuja will acquire Holcim's 50.01% stake in ACC. Both Ambuja and ACC will continue to operate as separately with their own brands. However, the restructuring will allow for closer back-end cooperation between the companies as well as simplifying the group structure.

"This transaction further improves Holcim's holding structure in India, strengthens the platform for future growth and is expected to generate synergy benefits of US$150m/yr. These benefits, which will be realised in a phased manner over two years, will be shared by both companies equally through supply chain, shared services and fixed costs optimisation. The transaction is expected to be neutral on Holcim's EPS in the first full year following the completion of the transaction and accretive thereafter," said Holcim CEO Bernard Fontana.

In a two stage deal, Ambuja will first acquire, through a purchase, a 24% stake in Holcim India for a cash consideration of around US$600m, followed by a stock merger between Holcim India and Ambuja. As part of the merger, Holcim will receive 584 million new equity shares in Ambuja resulting in an increase of its ownership in Ambuja from the current 50.55% to 61.39%.

The transaction is subject to Ambuja's shareholder and regulatory approvals in India.

India: Shiva Cement is planning to upgrade its cement production capacity to 1Mt/yr with an investment of US$45m. The cement producer currently has a capacity of 0.13Mt/yr at Rourkela in Odisha. The company has an agreement with ACC, who holds a 13% stake in Shiva Cement, to sell its entire production.

"Since we have the requisite land at our existing facility and all the approvals are in place, we expect the project to be completed by the first half 2015," said RP Gupta, chairman and managing director of Shiva Cement. In a second phase the company plans to further increase its capacity to 2Mt/yr.

India: The Indian Supreme Court (SC) today refused to give interim relief to cement manufacturers in their appeal against the interim penalty imposed on them on charges of forming a cartel, confirmed for now by the Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT). It did, however, delay the deadline for the penalty by over a week.

The CAT had told the companies to pay 10% of the total US$1.1bn penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) by 16 June 2013 and it posted their main appeal for August 2013. The manufacturers appealed against this to the SC. Now the deadline for payment has been moved from Sunday 16 June 2013 until Monday 24 June 2013. However, the court insisted on their complying with the CAT's interim order.

The order was imposed by CCI against 11 major cement producers including ACC, UltraTech and Ambuja and their association. The apex court refused to lift the penalty order or reduce the rate, despite long arguments over two days by senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi for UltraTech Cement and Ranjit Kumar for Jaiprakash Associates. According to the modified order, the amounts shall be deposited with the tribunal and kept in a separate fixed deposit with a nationalised bank. The deposit shall be renewable after six months. The amounts deposited, with interest, shall be dealt with by the tribunal at the time of the disposal of the appeals of the cement companies.

The case was originally filed by the Builders Association of India before the CCI, alleging cartelisation by the cement companies. The director general (investigation) of the CCI found evidence of formation of a cartel by the cement companies, with capacity utilisation held down to control prices. The penalty was calculated on the basis of the annual turnover of the companies in question over a certain period.

India/Germany: ACC has ordered two vertical roller mills from Loesche, in a consortium with KHD, for its Jamul cement plant.

The Holcim subsidiary has ordered a Loesche Mill Type LM 56.3+3 CS equipped with a classifier type LDC to grind clinker. The vertical roller mill will be operated with the power of a 5600kW motor and will have a capacity of 195t/hr. In addition a Loesche vertical roller mill Type LM 43.4 D will be part of the project and is designed to have a capacity of 90t/hr. The gearbox has a capacity of 1300kW.

Loesche's scope of supply for the Jamul project of Holcim will include additional equipment which is delivered in a joint venture by Loesche GmbH, Duesseldorf, as well as by Loesche India Pvt. Ltd.

India:Associated Cement Companies (ACC) has posted a 46% year-on-year decline in its profit in the quarter ending 31 December 2012. It made a quarterly profit of US$47.1m, which was lower than in the same quarter of 2011 due to higher finance and raw material costs.

ACC's sales rose by around 2% year-on-year to US$505.6m as demand improved towards the end of the quarter. The company's earnings before interest, tax, deprecitaion and amortisation (EBITDA) were down to US$59.6m compared to US$83.1m in 2011.

Cost pressures are likely to remain high for ACC due to higher railway freight rates and interest costs. Going ahead, margins may improve on the back of price hike announced recently by cement companies.

India: McNally Bharat Engineering Company Ltd (MBEL), a Williamson Magor group company, has booked an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract worth US$133.5m from ACC Ltd to set up a 9000t/day (~2.9Mt/yr) brownfield cement facility at its existing plant at Jamul, Chhattisgarh. The deal was announced by Deepak Khaitan, chairman of MBEL, at a press conference in the city on 17 December 2012. The plant will be set up with technology from Germany's KHD Humboldt Wedag.

"This order is a major milestone for us as it flags off MBEL's entry into the cement plant construction business," said Khaitan. "This will open up opportunities for MBEL as an EPC contractor for the Indian cement industry."

The company has also opened offices in South Africa to carry out engineering contracts in Africa. "Our emphasis will be to expand our footprint globally," said Khaitan.

India: Villagers living near an ACC Cement plant in Orissa have accused the company of mismanaging its fly ash. According to the villagers living in Khaliapali, crops have been damaged by runoff fly ash created by a captive power plant at the nearby Bargarh cement plant. The resultant slurry has also spilled into the fields of the neighbouring villages of Banjibahali and Baragad.

Khaliapali villagers have accused ACC Cement of taking over 12 acres of land in the village and forcibly dumping fly ash on it despite protests. They said fly ash has become a nuisance in the village as it covers the houses and village water tank rendering water unfit for human use.

Additional District Magistrate Srinibas Kabi commented that the Regional Office of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) had noted the villagers' concerns. However, OSPCB Regional Officer S S Mishra said they had not received any complaint from the Bargarh administration.

India: Two of Holcim's Indian subsidiaries have reported rises in their second quarter 2012 profits. Ambuja Cement has reported a 35% growth in net profit for the quarter ending 30 June 2012 due to increased sales, to US$84.6m from US$62.8m in the same period of 2011. Net sales by the company rose by 17.9% to US$463m during the quarter from US$392m in 2011. Ambuja Cement attributed this to a 7.3% rise in sales volume, to 5.54Mt from 5.16Mt.

During the quarter, absolute Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the company rose by 22.8% to US$133m. However Ambuja Cement declared that higher operational expenses impacted upon this rise. Total expenses for the company, including raw material and power costs, rose by 15.7% to US$354m from US$306m. The company expects that profit margins are likely to remain under pressure due to steep rise in cost driven by higher raw material prices and rise in distribution and freight costs.

Meanwhile, ACC has reported a 26% rise in consolidated net profit for the second quarter of 2012 due to strong revenue growth, to US$74.8m from US$59.2m in the same period in 2011. Total consolidated turnover for ACC in the quarter rose by 15% to US$526m from US$458m in 2011. The company sold 6.05Mt of cement during the quarter compared to 5.93Mt in the same period in 2011.

Like Ambuja Cement, ACC mentioned 'steep' escalations in most of its key input costs including slag, fly ash, gypsum and power. The company also commented that the increase in railway freight rates with effect from March 2012 substantially impacted both inward and outward costs.

Both Ambuja Cement and ACC were fined in June 2012 by the Competition Commission of India for their alleged involvement in a price-fixing cartel. Ambuja Cement was fined US$210m and ACC was fined US$207m. ACC is currently taking steps to appeal against the fine.