Displaying items by tag: GCW183

India: Kumar Mangalam Birla has said that the Aditya Birla Group will invest US$3.19bn in Gujarat State to ramp up capacities across various existing facilities.

"We will be continuing to grow our businesses here," said Birla. "On the anvil are brownfield expansions at our cement plant in Sevagram, the viscose staple fibre (VSF) plants in Vilayat and Bharuch and expansions of our metal plants, among others. Our investments will be close to US$3.19bn."

He added that Gujarat is the group's preferred investment destination in India. "We're greatly impressed by the proactive approach of Government of Gujarat. I have a personal bias for the state," said Birla. He added that it was not tax sops, but delivery of high-quality infrastructure that makes it the group's preferred state.

US: After more than three days of searching, on 11 January 2015 firefighters found the body of a worker who was missing after a full cement silo collapsed in Bristol Township, Pennsylvania. The missing worker was identified as Anthony Gabriele (48) of Tullytown. The collapse happened at the Riverside Cement distribution facility in the Riverside Industrial Complex on 8 January 2015. An investigation into the collapse is still ongoing.

India: Prism Cement is planning a 4.4Mt/yr capacity limestone mining project at the village of Kotapadu and Kalvatala in Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh. 6.63km² of land has been acquired. The project will come also include a 3Mt/yr capacity clinker plant and a 48MW coal-fired power plant. The project is waiting for the new industrial policy to be established by the State Government.

India: Navjawan Sangharsh Morcha MLA and former minister Bhanu Pratap Sahi have urged the Jharkhand Government to initiate steps to re-open the Japla cement plant in Palamau, which was closed several years ago. Sahi said that the Government should also take steps to re-open the Bhavnathpur power plant. He added that the Government should outline funds in the main budget in March 2015 for its development, including water availability.

Venezeula/China: The governments of Venezuela and China have struck a deal to jointly build three cement plants in Venezuela. Each of the new plants will have 2500t/day of production capacity. No investment figures were released.

Turkey: Turkish cement company Sançim Cimento has been acquired by Aşkale Çimento. The acquisition follows the recently-aborted acquisition of Sançim by another firm, Çimsa, for Euro185.m. The new owner of Sançim is a joint venture of Sönmez Holding (43%), Aunde Teknik (38%), E.N.A. Tekstil (10%) and Umut Insaat (9%).

Ireland: CRH has revealed a 2014 acquisition and investment spend of Euro190m, reflecting the completion of 21 transactions. On the divestment front, the group completed 16 transactions and realised total disposal proceeds of Euro350m.

"In August 2014 we announced a multi-year Euro1.5 – 2.0bn divestment programme; the proceeds of Euro350m generated in 2014 demonstrate that this programme is well underway," said Albert Manifold, CRH chief executive. "With a refined portfolio focus, the group is now well-positioned to pursue acquisitions that are in line with our long-term growth strategy. The 21 transactions completed during 2014 primarily comprise bolt-on acquisitions for our existing operations in the Americas, together with the expansion of our builders merchanting network in Europe."

The disposal of CRH's 50% equity stake in Denizli Çimento, its only involvement in Turkey, was the largest single divestment in 2014, realising proceeds of Euro170m.

Colombia: Demonstrations have been held in Boyaca, Colombia by residents from Firavitoba and Tibasosa in order to protest against the operations of cement manufacturers Cementos del Oriente, Cementos Tequendama, Holcim and Cementos Argos. The communities claim that the cement operations are having a harmful effect on their health and are affecting the state of the local roads. Local authorities have agreed to meet with representatives from the communities on 19 January 2015 to discuss the matter.

Germany: N+P has announced that it will expand its cooperation for the delivery of high quality Subcoal^® pellets with Dyckerhoff in Germany.

Subcoal is produced at the Qlyte plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. The Qlyte facility produces about 65,000t/yr of Subcoal pellets, consuming around 100,000t/yr of non-recyclable paper-plastic waste fractions that otherwise would have ended in landfill or waste incineration. The Subcoal is used to replace lignite dust or bituminous coal at cement kilns, power stations and lime kilns.

Dyckerhoff started to use Subcoal in 2013. N+P and Dyckerhoff have since worked together to improve the alternative fuel for optimal use in its kilns. The cooperation has led to a new Subcoal fuel that is used at the Dyckerhoff kiln in Lengerich. The kiln in Geseke will continue to use the standard Subcoal quality.

India: A strike by coal workers' unions would impact industrial growth across the country, industry chambers said. It asked the trade unions to resolve their grievances in an amicable manner.

"The strike would impact industrial growth across India, especially in power-deficient northern and southern regions, resulting in long unplanned outages," said Assocham secretary general D S Rawat. "The strike would impact all industries based on coal, including the cement industries that are already reeling under the pressure of raw material prices."

Over 75% of India's daily coal output has been hit as the five-day strike by workers of State-run miners entered the second day on 7 January 2015, raising fears of disruption in power supplies. The industrial action is in protest of 'disinvestment and restructuring of state-run Coal India' and to press for demands, including the roll-back of what unions call 'process of denationalising of coal sector.'

Appealing to all trade unions to call off the strike, Process Harmony Development (PHD) chamber president Alok Shriram said that they should negotiate with the government to resolve their concerns and grievances in an amicable manner. The government has begun an exercise to reform India with progressive and modest policies to put it on the path of accelerated growth. Any sort of strike to oppose and obstruct the evolving policies would harm the country's economic interest, according to Shriram.

"The path of strike serves neither workers nor the policy makers. Therefore, the working class of Coal India ought to seek redressal of their grievances through negotiations," said Shriram.

Update: According to Reuters, the strike has been called off on the second day (7 January 2015) after the government agreed to re-examine the decision.

Power minister Piyush Goyal agreed to form a committee to look into any issues with a recently-passed executive order that would allow auctions of coal mines to private companies for their own use, as well as allowing commercial mining in the future.

"We have withdrawn the strike," said Jibon Roy, a senior union leader. "The minister agreed to form a committee. They will see what are the problems in the ordinance (executive order). Normal discussions on other demands will continue."