Displaying items by tag: India

India: Union Steel and Heavy Industries Minister Haradanahalli Kumaraswamy has visited the Cement Corporation of India (CCI) plant in Bokajan, Assam, where he emphasised the potential of the facility to benefit local communities. During his visit, Kumaraswamy inaugurated a hot gas utilisation project at the plant's raw mills and laid the foundation for a 1MW grid-connected solar photovoltaic plant, reports the Deccan Herald. He also discussed important local issues, including the need for upgrades at the Bokajan cement factory and pollution control. CCI chair and managing director Sanjay Verma outlined plans to upgrade the plant’s equipment over the next three years and highlighted the employment of local labour as vital for regional economic growth.

India: Cement producers in North, Central and East India have reduced production by 10 - 15% in the second quarter of 2024 due to low demand and project delays after an extended monsoon, according to The Hindu Business Line. Clinker utilisation stands at 70-75% for the quarter, down from around 80% during April – June 2024. South India remains comparatively unaffected.

India: Ramco Cements has increased its cement grinding capacity by nearly 1Mt/yr. The company carried out debottlenecking at its Kalavatala plant in Andhra Pradesh, enhancing capacity from 1.5Mt/yr to 2Mt/yr. Similarly, at the Valapady grinding unit in Salem District, Tamil Nadu, capacity has been increased from 1.6Mt.yr to 2Mt/yr.

India: The city of Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) in Tamil Nadu has entered an agreement with a cement manufacturing unit in Ariyalur to use the city’s non-recyclable plastic materials as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to power the plant’s kilns. This initiative aims to divert substantial amounts of plastic from the Ariyamangalam dump, starting with 300t/month and increasing over time, with hopes to collaborate with more cement plants, according to the Times of India. The city generates approximately 480t/day of non-recyclable materials, with plans to eventually prevent landfill use completely.

A Trichy official said “A cement manufacturer in Ariyalur has agreed to accept 6 - 8t/day of inert plastic ‘waste’, which will be transported to the plant in a corporation truck. It will be utilised to power the kilns as a substitute for fossil fuel.”

India: Rambhav Gattu, a chief manufacturing officer at Ambuja Cement in Chhattisgarh, has been arrested for allegedly attempting to bribe a government official in Odisha, Reuters reports. He is accused of having offered a box of confectionery containing US$2382 to the collector of Odisha's Barghar region, whose duties involve collecting revenues. A case has been registered against Gattu for ‘attempting to induce a public servant’, without specifying what the money offered was for. The arrest aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's anti-corruption campaign, which has intensified actions against corrupt practices.

India: Residents near the proposed cement plant site in Garhshankar, Hoshiarpur district, are holding a public hearing on 11 September 2024, disputing the legitimacy of a previous meeting held by the Punjab Pollution Control Board and local authorities on 19 January 2024. The Vatavarn Bachao Sangharash Committee, representing 24 villages, claims the initial hearing was manipulated and poorly attended by local villagers.

Convener Tarsem Singh said "Three villages - Naryala, Sardullapur and Badhoaan - are in the immediate vicinity of the proposed plant. Around 30 villages are in its 5km radius. Representatives from these villages have already been holding meetings for eight months after we came to know about the proposal. We have also been sending representatives to authorities. Now our teams are visiting these villages daily to mobilise wider public participation, so that people can express their views."

India: Oriana Power subsidiary TrueRE Surya has won a contract to build a 128MW solar power plant in Tamil Nadu for Dalmia Cement (Bharat), supporting its target to use 100% renewable electricity by 2030 and become carbon negative by 2040.

The project cost approximately US$62m and will be commissioned within the next 12 months, according to Energetica India Magazine. As part of the contract, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) will acquire 26% of TrueRE Surya for US$5.3m, with the transaction finalising within four to six months.

Oriana Power Chief business officer Anirudh Saraswat said “We are also humbled by the trust posed in Oriana Power’s ability to execute mega solar projects by the largest companies and are equally excited to take another big step forward in helping India meet its renewable energy goals through this partnership.”

India: RHI Magnesita India plans to invest approximately €442m to expand and upgrade its production capacity by the end of the financial year 2025, according to The Hindu newspaper. This follows a €331m investment over the past two years, which increased the company's refractory production capacity in India to over 0.5Mt/yr.

India: Star Cement has announced the formation of Ri Pnar Cement in Meghalaya as a wholly-owned subsidiary. The incorporation was approved by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on 5 September 2024, and involves an authorised capital of US$11,911, divided into 100,000 equity shares valued at US$0.12 each.

India: Indian cement manufacturers plan to invest approximately US$14.3bn over the next four years to increase capacity by 25%, adding 160-170Mt/yr of cement production, reports the Times of Oman newspaper. This expansion is reportedly driven by rising domestic demand and a significant infrastructure push by the government, with plans to invest US$1.7tn in infrastructure projects by 2030. The industry aims to fund this growth primarily through internal accruals, reducing reliance on debt. The top three producers —Ultratech, Ambuja, and Shree Cement — will reportedly contribute over 70% of the total capacity increase.