Displaying items by tag: Gujarat

India: Piramal Enterprises has invested US$38m in Sanghi Industries. The investment has been made through non-convertible debentures to enable Sanghi to repay some of its debts ahead of schedule and reduce interest repayments.

Piramal Enterprises is a diversified international conglomerate that operates in the pharmaceutical, financial services and information management sectors. Sanghi Industries runs a 2.9Mt/yr integrated cement plant in Kutch, Gujarat.

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.

India: Cement consumption in India fell for the first time in nearly 20 years in the three months to 30 June 2011, with a political impasse in large consumer states holding up infrastructure and realty projects. Demand fell by 0.68% during the period compared with the corresponding period in 2010 but demand changes were different depending on location. In Andhra Pradesh, demand contracted by 21% and in Karnataka it was down by 8.04%, according to data from Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA).

Elsewhere, demand was down by 2% in June 2011 in Kerala and in Tamil Nadu, it was down by 1.9%. In comparison Gujarat saw cement demand grow by 4.9%, but growth was less strong than the same period of 2010, when 15% cement demand growth was seen.

The demand for cement is not assisted by problems that are expected to hinder government's proposed USD107bn investment in state road development during the 12th Plan period. The government has cited a lack of capacity in the private sector to make large investments, political sensitivity surrounding road-tolling, land acquisition disputes (which have caused a slow-down and resentment from locals at the site of the Formula 1 circuit site in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh) and a shortage of trained manpower as key problem-areas that may hamper the execution of the programme, due to start in 2012.

It is estimated that because of these problems, around 80% of the cost of the proposed investment will have to be met by public funds. The plan includes the construction of over 30,000km of new dual-carriageways, 5000km of four-lane highways and another 41,500km of single-track roads that are due for restructuring. The plan stipulates that the roads will be finished with either cement-based finishes or asphalt.