Displaying items by tag: GCW189

India: Malabar Cements Limited (MCL) will resume operations at its Cherthala grinding plant in Alappuzha, Kerala on 26 February 2015. Managing director K Padmakumar said that a ship carrying 27,010t of clinker intended for the plant had reached the Cochin port from Fujairah, UAE.

Padmakumar said that the Cherthala plant would have 600t/day of capacity and required 1.2Mt/yr of clinker. The plant stopped functioning in 2009 due to a shortage of clinker, though its profit was around US$644,000/yr. MCL's Walayar cement plant in Kerala was not able to share its clinker production with the Cherthala plant.

Clinker is now sourced through e-tenders. The company that won the e-tender has assured the management of uninterrupted supply of clinker throughout the year. The price is lower than the clinker it previously sourced from the Cement Corporation of India. "As per the arrangement, MCL can save US$16.1/t," said K Abdul Samad, chief mechanical engineer of MCL. With the Cherthala plant back on stream, the production capacity of MCL would grow to 200,000t/yr.

India: Aditya Birla's Hindalco Industries has won the Gare Palma IV/5 mine in Chhattisgarh, outbidding a number of companies, including Ambuja Cements, on day five of India's coal mine auction. The winning bid was US$56.4/t and the mine has extractable reserves of 42.4Mt. This is Hindalco Industries' second winning bid in the auction.

India: Ambuja Cement, ACC and Lafarge India may merge as part of the proposed global merger of Lafarge and Holcim, according to local media. The plan is still at an early stage and LafargeHolcim have mandated investment bank Lazard to advise on the restructuring of their Indian operations. The most likely option is the merger of ACC, Ambuja and Lafarge India into one listed entity to create the largest cement company in India. The combined cement production capacity of the three subsidiaries would be some 70Mt/yr.

As part of the new restructuring proposal, LafargeHolcim may reassess Holcim's restructuring of ACC and Ambuja, which was announced in 2014 and is currently incomplete. As part of the plan, shareholders of Ambuja had approved ACC's stake acquisition from Holcim.

India: Most cement plants in India consume less energy and emit less CO₂ than their European and American counterparts as they use the latest technology, according to the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI).

An initiative of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), CSI is a 23-member organisation including nine Indian cement companies. CSI members produce 66% of the world's cement and 60% in India. "The member companies from India are more efficient. They emit less CO₂ than the companies in Europe and the US. Their energy consumption is also less," said CSI's managing director Philippe Fonta.

The distinction between Indian firms from those in the US and Europe is technology. Indian companies use the latest technology since many of the cement plants are relatively new. Besides India's UltraTech Cement and Dalmia Bharat, seven global companies with operations in India like Holcim's ACC and Ambuja Cement, Lafarge, HeidelbergCement, Zuari Cement are among members of CSI. Fonta said that Indian companies could improve if they lay more emphasis on alternative fuels and energy and make use of municipal waste. The 360Mt/yr Indian cement industry meets just 0.6% of its energy needs with alternative fuels, but this is expected to go up to 5% cent by 2020.