Displaying items by tag: Dalmia Bharat

India: Dalmia Bharat plans to more than triple its installed cement production capacity by 2030, to 110–130Mt/yr from 30.8Mt/yr in 2021. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that with the completion of all on-going projects, the producer’s capacity will rise to 48.5Mt/yr.

India: Dalmia Bharat’s first-quarter consolidated income net sales were US$348m in the 2022 financial year, up by 36% year-on-year from US$256m in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year. The group’s cement sales totalled 4.89Mt, up by 33% from 3.66Mt. Profit after tax increased by 45% to US$37.2m from US$25.7m.

Managing director Puneet Dalmia said “Despite the challenges posed by the second wave of Covid-19, our business has once again shown resilience and successfully delivered an all-round performance. We are very excited about the opportunities that we see in the marketplace, and our consistent performance over the past quarters gives us immense confidence as we embark on an aggressive growth journey over the next decade.” He added “Our vision is to build an institution based on the principles of growth, profitability, sustainability and respect, and also to be able to participate meaningfully in our country’s growth story. We are committed to delivering industry-leading returns to our stakeholders through our sustainable business model and a robust governance mechanism.”

India: Dalmia Bharat Group director Jai Hari Dalmia died on 8 July 2021 at the age of 76.

Dalmia’s father Jaidayal Dalmia founded the company in 1939 before Dalmia and his brother Yadu Hari Dalmia later took charge of the business in the 1980s, according to Forbes. Together they built the cement division up from one cement plant to 13 cement plants in 2020.

Dalmia held a Bachelor of Engineeringdegree in electrical engineering from Jadavpur University and a Master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne. He had more than 47 years of experience across various industries including refractories, sugar and cement. Dalmia was involved in research and development and had personally received several patents for the company's businesses.

India: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of the Indian government has established the Cement Industry Development Council (CIDC) to coordinate the cement sector’s efforts towards eliminating waste, maximising efficiency, increasing standards and lowering prices. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the DPIIT has appointed Dalmia Bharat chief managing director Puneet Dalmia as head of the CIDC. An initial task for the council will be to recommend steps towards securing full cement capacity utilisation.

India/US: Mahendra Singhi, the head of India-based Dalmia Cement (Bharat), has been invited to represent the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) as Carbon Pricing Champion. He will work with Feike Sijbesma, Honorary Chair of Board of Royal DSM to devise carbon pricing strategies for the Asia-Pacific region

The CPLC is a global coalition promoted by the World Bank Group. It is represented by 34 national and sub-national governments, 172 private sector organizations 100 strategic partners non government organisations, business organisations, and universities. The voluntary initiative aims to accelerate climate change mitigation by securing the place of carbon pricing on the global agenda.

India: Dalmia Bharat subsidiary Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has marked World Environment Day with the ceremonial planting of a tree at the Bokaro cement plant in Jharkhand. In Assam, the company planted 6000 Neem, Royal Poinciana and Yellow Poinciana saplings and 4km of bamboo fence around its Alsthom Industries cement plant in Jagiroad.

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) executive director Indrajit Chatterji said, “We at Dalmia Cement have been firm believers in creating a clean and green ecosystem, especially in this pandemic situation across the world. With this tree plantation drive, we would humbly like to make a contribution towards the nature. I would urge all, to come forward and join hands to do our bit towards enabling a greener environment not only for us, but for the future generations to come. We, as a responsible corporate citizen, will always come forward to do whatever we can for the society at large.”

Another week and it’s another commodity story related to the effects of coronavirus. This time the Indian press and financial analysts have started to notice a shift in the fuel mix of some of the major producers from petcoke to coal. UltraTech Cement moved to 30% petcoke and 60% imported coal in the fourth quarter of its 2021 financial year that ended on 31 March 2021. This compares to a reported mix of 77% and 10% in the previous year according to Mint. Dalmia Bharat reduced its share of petcoke to 52% in the fourth quarter from 70% in the third quarter, while its coal mix was 35 - 40% in the fourth quarter.

Price is the driver here. UltraTech Cement’s chief financial officer Atul Daga summed the situation up in an earnings call in late January 2021. Essentially, he said that fuel represented about 13% of total costs for cement producers in India and that both the cost of coal and petcoke nearly doubled from June 2020 to January 2021. However, coal is seen as the cheaper option, hence the move towards it in the fuels mix ratio. The petcoke market meanwhile has suffered due to reduced oil refinery output due to, you guessed it, the effect of coronavirus on global markets in 2020. Scarcity in the US market has particularly affected the decisions on buyers for Indian cement companies since this is the key source of their imports. Demand for petcoke from Latin America and the Mediterranean hasn’t helped either. Both petcoke and coal markets are expected to stabilise in the second half of 2021. Diesel prices have also risen recently causing UltraTech Cement’s power and fuel costs to increase by 28% year-on-year to US$356m and logistics costs, including freight expenses, to rise by 25% to US$449m in the fourth quarter of its 2021 financial year.

With this in mind it’s interesting then, that for some analysts at least, fuel prices have been seen as more worrying for cement producer profits than the latest round of coronavirus-related lockdowns from India’s second wave of infection. Fitch Ratings for example, warned that the impact of mounting fuel costs would continue to be seen in the quarter to June 2021 but that it would subside due to the switch in fuel mix and price rises passed to end consumers. On the lockdowns, it forecast that localised restrictions, with cement plants being allowed to continue operating in most states, would cause a far less pronounced drop in cement demand than during the first national lockdown.

Graph 1: Monthly cement production in India, January 2019 – April 2021. Source: Office of the Economic Adviser.

Graph 1 above shows that the crisis the Indian cement sector faced during the first lockdown, when production crumbled by 85% year-on-year to 4.3Mt in April 2020. The following recovery saw production reach its second highest ever figure at 32.9Mt in March 2021. It’s too soon to tell what’s happening from the national figure but that dip in April 2021 is not looking good so far.

One benefit from unstable fuel prices is that it builds the economic case for cement producers to raise their alternative fuels substitution rates. UltraTech Cement, for example, reported that its ‘green’ energy rate grew to 13% in its 2021 financial year from 11% in 2020. With a target of 34% by its 2024 financial year, this is an ideal opportunity for a change for both UltraTech Cement and other producers.

India: Cement producers reduced the proportion of coal in their fuel mixes during the fourth quarter of the local 2021 financial year. Ramco Cements’ petcoke use was 41% in the 2021 financial year compared to 48% in the 2020 financial year, according to Mint News. Dalmia Bharat subsidiary Dalmia Cement used 52% petcoke in its cement fuel in the fourth quarter of the 2021 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2021, compared to 70% in the year’s third quarter. In the same comparison periods, Aditya Birla subsidiary UltraTech Cement reduced its petcoke share to 30% from 77%. It replaced the fuel with 60% coal, compared to 10% in the third quarter of the 2021 financial year.

Petcoke prices more than doubled year-on-year to US$130/t in the fourth quarter of the 2021 financial year, leading cement producers to switch fuels. Coal prices have resultantly risen by 82% to US$100/t. Producers rely on imports for both commodities.

India: Dalmia Bharat’s consolidated revenue rose by 9% year-on-year to US$1.43bn in its 2021 financial year from US$1.31bn in the same period in 2020. During the period, which ended on 31 March 2021, its sales volumes of cement grew by 7% to 20.7Mt from 19.3Mt. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 32% to US$377m from US$285m.

Puneet Dalmia, the managing director of Dalmia Bharat said, “I am delighted with our company’s performance this year. The performance is backed by broad-based revenue growth of 9.0% across each region of our operation and EBITDA margin expansion. Through a much disciplined execution, we have successfully increased our capacity by 16% while simultaneously pre-paying our gross debt.”

India: Dalmia Bharat subsidiary Dalmia Cement and other companies are introducing a raft of new safety measures to counteract an increase in coronavirus cases, according to the Economic Times newspaper. The companies’ efforts include creating bio-bubbles for workers, reintroducing working from home where possible, changing shift patterns, conducting rapid testing and, not allowing outsiders into facilities without a negative coronavirus test and organising vaccination stations.