Displaying items by tag: ACC

India: 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.

India: 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.

India: ACC has reported a second quarter 2014 net profit of US$40.1m, some 7% lower than the US$43.1m reported in the second quarter of 2013. The fall in profit was attributed to higher total expenses. ACC also announced that Harish Badami was appointed as CEO and managing director with effect from 13 August 2014.

"Manufacturing and distribution costs continued to face escalation, though we derived some benefits from the ongoing cost leadership programme and an increase in the sales of premium products," said ACC.

Revenue grew by 7.5% year-on-year to US$509m during the second quarter of 2014, aided by higher volumes. Sales volumes increased to 6.35Mt, up from 6.12Mt in the same period of 2013.

"Demand for cement showed some improvement and the company's overall sales volumes during the quarter improved by 4%," said ACC. The company expects the positive trend in demand for cement to continue as a result of government's emphasis on housing and infrastructure development.

Profit before interest and tax from its cement business declined to US$50.7m from US$57.7m year-on-year. Operating profit (EBITDA) dropped by 8% year-on-year to US$74.9m. Total expenses during the quarter increased by 10% compared to year-ago period due to higher raw material and employee costs and increased power, fuel and freight charges. Other expenses grew by 8% year-on-year.

An update on the algae bioreactor project at Votorantim's St Marys cement plant in Canada this week provides a good opportunity to review this particular aspect of carbon sequestration. The project, run with Pond Biofuels, went live in 2009. It has now reached its third generation bioreactor at the site.

Little or no performance data has been released generally so we have no way at present of knowing how viable the process is commercially. Cement backers, Brazilian firm Votorantim, are certainly excited by the project even if only for the sustainability kudos it gives them. Director Edvaldo Araújo Rabello presented the project as one of the company's highlights at a keynote presentation at the 6°CBC Congresso do Cimento held in São Paulo, Brazil in May 2014.

One hurdle for the St Marys pilot is the relative lack of light, a required input for algae photosynthesis, even in Canada's most southerly state. Pond Biofuels have reportedly dodged this by using continuously flashing LEDs to simulate artificially short days that encourage growth. On paper or powerpoint a process that could potentially cut even a proportion of CO₂ emissions from a cement plant sounds enticing. Yet if it creates more CO₂ than it saves, through electricity requirements for example, than it isn't worth using.

This is probably what shelved Lafarge's Carbon Capture and Transformation project. It ran a pilot project at its Val d'Azergues plant in France in 2009 with Salata GmbH. The pilot worked but the researchers decided that new advances in processes and biotechnology were required to make the economic and environmental results better. Other companies have also had problems. Holcim started its Aurantia – GreenFuel project in late 2007 at its Jerez cement plant in Spain, backing it with an investment US$92m. This project stalled when GreenFuel shut in 2009 citing lack of funding as the recession hit.

ACC in India also reportedly started its own algae project in 2007, mentioning it in its sustainability report, but nothing more has been reported since. Since this burst of interest InterCement has invested US$2.5m towards algae research in 2013 working with the Federal University of São Carlos, the Federal University of Santa Maria and Algae Biotecnologia.

Algae-based carbon projects for cement plants may remain stuck in the research stage but the market for biofuels continues to grow. For example, this week we report that Ohorongo Cement in Namibia plans to increase its use of blackthorn as a biofuel to use as an alternative fuel in co-processing. The prospects of turning waste CO₂ into a valuable commodity remains uncertain, but the rewards are great. Let's wait and see what St Marys can do.

India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed the penalty on Shree Cement while issuing the final order in a case against cement manufacturers and their trade body, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).

"The Commission has imposed a penalty on Shree Cement Ltd at the rate of half of its profits for the years 2009 - 2010 and 2010 – 2011, aggregating to US$66.2m," said the CCI. The CCI added that it had, "Found 11 cement manufacturers, including Shree Cement and the CMA, in contravention of the provisions of the Competition Act 2002, which deal with anti-competitive agreements, including cartels." It asked Shree Cement to refrain from such anti-competitive activities in the future.

With regard to the other companies, the CCI said that as they were fined earlier, it was not imposing any penalty on them again for the same period of contravention. In June 2012 the CCI imposed a US$1.05bn fine on 11 leading cement makers, including ACC, Ambuja Cements, UltraTech, India Cements, Binani Cement, JK Cement, Madras Cement, Lafarge and Jaypee Cement. The industry body CMA was also fined US$121,717.

India: The board of directors of ACC Ltd has appointed Harish Badami as CEO and managing director (MD) designate with effect from 1 August 2014. Badami will assume responsibility as CEO and MD of the company for a period of five years. He will succeed Kuldip Kaura.

"With the Jamul cement plant (in Chhattisgarh State) expansion coming on stream in 2015, ACC is now well poised to serve the Indian market which is on the threshold of rapid growth," said Kaura.

"At this juncture, with the economy showing positive signs, I look forward to the exciting opportunity to participate in its growth," said Badami.

India: ACC Cement plans to invest US$499m to modernise its Jamul facility in Chhattisgarh and to add a grinding unit of 1.5Mt/yr capacity in its Jharkhand-based unit, according to ACC sales director C Kurian. ACC aims to decommission the existing plant at Jamul and set up a new technology-based cement plant with a 4Mt/yr production capacity. Kurian added that the Holcim-owned company is likely to finish the work by the second quarter of 2015.

ACC currently has a production capacity of 6Mt/yr but plans to raise it to 10Mt/yr by 2016. It has six plants and holds a market share of 12% in India.

India: Switzerland-based Holcim, the parent company of ACC and Ambuja Cements, will continue to retain its separate brands in India after its merger with Lafarge.

The management of ACC announced that there would be no impact to the existing brands post-merger. "The merger will be beneficial for the Indian cement industry and is expected to bring positive changes for the company," said the chairman of ACC, N S Sekhsaria. "ACC brand will remain intact after the merger of Holcim and Lafarge."

The merger is expected to take up to 18 months and Holcim's future plans in India will be known only after the merger is completed. Sekhsaria added that while the brands will be retained, there may be some rationalisation of operations.

India: ACC's net income has fallen slightly to US$1.75bn in 2013. However its net profit rose by 3% to US$174m. By business segment, cement sales fell slightly to US$1.71bn in 2013. The Indian cement producer made the announcement in a statement of consolidated audited financial results. In its statement ACC made no provision for a US$180m fine imposed on it by the Competition Commission of India for alleged cartel-like behaviour as it believes it can successfully appeal the penalty.

India: ACC has commissioned a cement blending unit at Padubidri in Udupi district.

An ACC company spokesman said that the unit uses fly-ash from the thermal power plant of Udupi Power Corporation in Udupi. The unit is capable of blending 30,000t/month of cement. Clinker from ACC's plant at Wadi in Gulbarga district is used for cement production at the blending unit in Udupi district. The Udupi plant caters to the cement requirements of Karnataka and Kerala states.