Displaying items by tag: Dalmia

India: The Assam Real Estate and Infrastructure Developers' Association (AREIDA) says that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has appointed an officer to investigate ‘unjustified’ rises in the price of cement. The AREIDA had filed a case with the CCI against Star, Topcem and Dalmia Cements in September 2016, according to the Assam Tribune newspaper. After a preliminary inquiry, the CCI had registered a case against the three companies with Case No. 77/2016, under Section 19 (1) (a) of the Competitions Act 2002, for violation of Sections 3 and 4 of the Act.

India: Members of the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) have met with Nitin Gadkari, the Minister for Road, Transport and Highways, to discuss price concerns around the country’s road building campaign. Local producers stand accused of increasing prices despite no rise in input costs amidst a national plan to build more roads, according to the Hindu newspaper. Producers dismissed these concerns, saying that price were lower than they had been in 2015. Instead they bashed discrepancies in export taxes between India and Pakistan.

Delegates from the cement producers at the meeting included N Srinivasan, managing director of India Cements, HM Bangur, managing director of Shree Cement, KK Maheshwari, managing director of UltraTech Cement, Ajay Kapur, managing director of Ambuja Cement, Mahendra Singhi, Group chief executive officer and wholetime director of Dalmia Cement, Ujjwal Batria, country chief executive officer and managing director of Nuvoco Vistas Corp and Aparna Dutt Sharma, Secretary General of the CMA.

India: Dalmia Bharat Cement has been selected as the preferred bidder for the Kesla II limestone block in Raipur District, Chhattisgarh. The block, with reserves of 215Mt, has an estimated value of US$1.6bn, according to the Hindu newspaper.

India: Dalmia Cement has committed to 100% renewable power and joined RE100, an initiate between the Climate Group and CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project). The new additions to RE100 take the total number of members to 83, and the total demand for renewable electricity being created to over 100TWhr.

“Being one of the greenest cement companies in the world, we are committed to decarbonising our operations in a way that makes business sense. We are scaling up our ambition to make a long term transition to 100% renewable power, achieving a fourfold increase in the percentage of renewable energy in our electricity consumption by 2030,” said Mahendra Singhi, Group CEO and Whole Time Director at Dalmia Cement (Bharat).

After adding 8MW solar photovoltaic capacity for its captive use, Dalmia Cement has set an interim target to increase its percentage of renewable energy consumption fourfold by 2030 compared to 2015, according to the Business Standard newspaper. Around 7% of the electricity used by Dalmia Cement, from the national grid and in-house generation, is based on renewable energy. Around 40% of the group’s locally generated power is based on renewables.

India: Dalmia Bharat and OCL India have agreed to merge creating the fourth largest cement producer in the country with a production capacity of 25Mt/yr. Dalmia Bharat already owns a 75% share in OCL and the merger has been described as a move to ‘simplify the ownership’, according to Puneet Dalmia, managing director of Dalmia Bharat Group, in comments to the Economic Times.

“The merger will simplify the holding structure and create further consolidation in the cement sector,” said Dalmia. “This action further strengthens our position as one of the leading cement players in India, uniquely placed to support India’s economic growth, and demonstrates our commitment towards achieving simplification and consolidation.”

India: The Hynniewtrep Achik National Movement (HANM) has demanded that the state government of Meghalaya cancel a public hearing to discuss the construction of a plant by Dalmia Cement at Thangskai scheduled for 25 October 2016. The group is protesting about mining rights to the site, according to the Meghalaya Times.

"We strongly express our opposition and demand that the proposed public hearing for extraction of limestone from Thangskai village by the Dalmia Cement factory is immediately revoked," said HANM- East Jaintia Hills president Ency Shadap. The group has also asked that the state government give a public clarification on its decision to grant permission to the cement company to extract limestone from the district and cited certification issues with the Ministry of Forest & Environment.

India: Dalmia Cement Bharat has launched its Dalmia DSP Cement brand of cement. Senior Executive Director and group head B K Singh told the Press Trust of India that this new product will make concrete buildings more durable and it will be packaged to prevent water damage, allowing for longer storage times. The product will be released first in Tamil Nadu before a phased introduction in other states in the south of the country.

India: On 9 May 2016 Dalmia Cement withdrew their challenge to a conditional approval given by India’s anti-trust regulator to the proposed merger of Lafarge and Holcim in india. The Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT) has accepted Dalmia’s decision, paving the way for the sale of Lafarge India’s 11Mt/yr of cement capacity as a part of the merger conditions.

A statement from LafargeHolcim stated, “We are happy Dalmia has withdrawn their appeal to the CAT and look forward to completing the sale of Lafarge India.”

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) threw a spanner in the works of the sale of Lafarge India this week. The cement producer, part of Dalmia Group, appealed against the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) revised approval of the sale in February 2016. Dalmia challenged the CCI’s approval on procedural grounds querying both the revised and original order for the sale. Subsequently the sale has been delayed until a hearing in May 2016.

Dalmia’s objections concern how the CCI’s original approval in March 2015 interacts with the revised approval given in February 2016. Lafarge India was originally asked by the CCI in February 2015 to sell off 5.2Mt/yr of cement production capacity in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in eastern India. The request was a condition to allow the merger of Lafarge and Holcim in the country. Lafarge lined up Birla Corporation to buy the two cement plants but an ambiguous amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act killed the deal. Then Lafarge India, a subsidiary of LafargeHolcim, announced that is was selling all of its assets in India. This includes three cement plants and two grinding stations with a total capacity of around 11Mt/yr.

Dalmia’s appeal may be planned to slow down the sale of a rival in the Indian cement business. Dalmia Group is the fifth largest cement producer in India with a capacity of 14.5Mt/yr. Lafarge India is, to an extent, a lame duck rival whilst the legal wranglings drag on.

However, the appeal may have a more serious side. A statement from the lawyers representing Dalmia also mentioned a challenge against the purchase requirements from the original CCI approval in March 2015. Specifically that any purchaser, “shall not have (directly or indirectly) operational capacity exceeding 5% of the total installed capacity in the relevant geographic market.” The confusion here is where that ‘relevant’ area refers to.

Originally the CCI designated this as Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. And unsurprisingly, Dalmia holds more than 5% of production capacity in that region. If the CCI expands the relevant geographic area to more regions of the country then Dalmia’s market share is likely to fall. Local media reported that a bid for the Lafarge India assets by private equity firm KKR, which holds equity in a Dalmia subsidiary, was denied by the CCI. Cue the legal challenge.

It seems unlikely that the appeal by Dalmia will slow the sale down too much. If it is accepted then the CCI will have to reissue its approval for a second time and the sale will be delayed by a few months. If it is denied then the sale will proceed after a delay of one month. Either way the affair demonstrates how prized the Lafarge India assets have become. Indian local media reported that at least nine bids were made. It will be fascinating to see the price the winning bid makes when it is released.

India: The Competition Appellate Tribunal has delayed the sale of Lafarge India following an appeal by Dalmia Cement Bharat. The sale has been halted until a hearing on 9 May 2016.

"Operation of order dated 2 February 2016 passed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI)... shall remain stayed," the COMPAT order passed by its chairman GS Singhvi said. LafargeHolcim has been asked to reply to Dalmia's appeal before the hearing in May 2016.

Lafarge India is selling all of its assets in India including a cement production capacity of 11Mt/yr. It received approval from the CCI in February 2016.