Displaying items by tag: India

India: Heidelberg Cement India has reported an increase in its net profit for the third quarter of 2012, which ended on 30 September 2012, of US$1.42m, compared to a net loss of US$1.55m for the same period in 2011. Total income for the quarter increased by 23.1% to US$48.6m from US$39.5m.

HeidelbergCement India is a subsidiary of Cementrum IBV, a company incorporated under the laws of The Netherlands that is 100% controlled by HeidelbergCement AG.

India: Gebr. Pfeiffer SE has secured an order from Shree Cement to provide a MPS 5000 B vertical roller mill for its RAS works in Rajasthan. The order follows a similar order from earlier in 2012 for production line seven at the RAS works.

The mill will feature a 3400kW drive designed to grind 420t/hr of raw material to a product fineness of 2% R212µm. Petcoke which is used as fuel at the works, will be ground to a fineness of 1-2% R 90µm in an MPS 2800 BK coal mill, which will come equipped with a 720-kW drive and an integrated high-efficiency classifier of the type SLS-BK.

Core components of the mills and the gear units will be supplied from Europe by Gebr. Pfeiffer SE. Gebr. Pfeiffer (India), the Indian subsidiary of Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, will source components such as the housing of the mills and the classifiers, the foundation parts as well as the internal parts of the classifiers. Additionally, the Indian subsidiary will design the layout of the grinding plants at its Noida-based offices and will advise Shree Cement on equipment procurement.

Ireland/India: International building materials group CRH has said that negotiations with Jaypee Cement Corporation have been terminated because the parties were unable to agree terms.

On 7 August 2012 CRH announced that it had entered into talks with Jaypee regarding the possible purchase by CRH of an equity stake in Jaypee's Gujarat cement business. The operations in Gujurat consisted of clinker plants with a total capacity of 3.6Mt/yr. There are also two cement grinding plants with a total capacity of 2.8Mt/yr.

India: Dalmia Cement Bharat, a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Enterprises, has signed an agreement to acquire Adhunik Cement for US$106m. The acquisition and consideration will be made in multiple tranches, subject to adjustments and various other terms and conditions.

Adhunik Cement is a joint venture between two Calcutta–based companies, Adhunik Group and MSP Group. Previously the company invested US$133m to set up a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant in the limestone-rich Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya. It also set up a 25MW coal-based captive power plant for the site.

Dalmia Bharat Enterprise is a cement manufacturer with plants in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with a capacity of 9Mt/yr. The company is engaged in the business of cement, thermal power and other businesses.

India: An inter-ministerial panel has recommended the de-allocation of two coal blocks held by five companies, including Gujarat Ambuja Cement, Grasim Industries and Lafarge India, bringing the total number of such blocks to 13. The Inter-ministerial Group (IMG) has completed the review of 29 coal blocks held by private companies and recommended cancellation of licences for blocks holding an estimated 2.6Bnt of coal, affecting 28 private companies.

The affected blocks include the Bhaskarapara block in Chhattisgarh and Dahegaon Makardhokra IV in Maharashtra. The Dahegaon Makardhokra IV coal block, with 132Mt of reserves was allocated to IST Steel & Power, Gujarat Ambuja Cement and Lafarge India in 2009. The Bhaskarapara block with 48Mt of reserves was allotted to Electrotherm (India) Ltd and Grasim Industries Ltd in 2008. The coal ministry has not decided yet how it will re-allocate the 13 blocks.

A senior coal ministry official said the coal blocks would be auctioned to private firms or given to government companies at the reserve price if the ministry does not want to allocate them to Coal India. The ministry has already identified 54 coal blocks for three types of allotments: to government companies, to power companies and to private firms through auction.

"If we decide that Coal India has enough blocks, we may give it to other companies through the auction route. Whatever the route is, no block will be given free of cost and even Coal India will pay a reserve price," the official said.

The de-allocation recommendation follows a probe into the so-called 'coalgate' scam, concerning the allocation of coal mines to private firms since 1993. The practice of granting captive coal blocks to private power, steel and cement companies began in 1993, following an amendment to the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act. India's main opposition, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has accused the government of using the probe for alleged vested political interests.

India: India's infrastructure major, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (Reliance Infra) has entered the Indian cement market with 'Reliance Cement' via its subsidiary Reliance Cement Company Pvt Ltd.

"The company now commercially enters into the Indian cement market, which has been on a robust growth trajectory for more than a decade, led by buoyancy in sectors like real estate, infrastructure and construction," said a Reliance Infra statement yesterday.

Reliance Infra will manufacture Portland pozzolana cement at its Butibori plant in Maharashtra state and deliver it mainly to the Vidharbha region.

"We will initially cater to the Vidharbha market (in Maharashtra state) focusing on districts like Nagpur, Wardha, Chandrapur, Bhandara, and Amrawati. Later we will expand our marketing and distribution networks to other districts," said Reliance Cement vice chairman, Sumit Banerjee.

India: Cement producers have suggested that the industry will be unable to 'absorb' increased freight charges caused by a rise in the price of diesel.

Following a US$0.10/l increase in the price of diesel, the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) increased freight charges across the country by 15%. The truck drivers' organisation claims to have around 8 million vehicles under its control.

"The increased freight charge is not going only to impact on the distribution of finished goods. Generally, it takes 2t of inputs to produce 1t of cement. So, the impact will be on a total of 3t freight. I don't think the industry is now in a position to absorb this," said, JK Lakshmi Cement whole-time director , Shailendra Chouksey.

Commenting on the impact of the rise in diesel prices, a major cement producer, which preferred not to be quoted, said the rise was high and that this would certainly push up the distribution cost for producers.

Currently, the Indian cement industry faces over-capacity with a utilisation of 76% of the total capacity of 330Mt/yr. According to UltraTech in its annual report the situation is unlikely to improve before 2015.

India: Villagers living near an ACC Cement plant in Orissa have accused the company of mismanaging its fly ash. According to the villagers living in Khaliapali, crops have been damaged by runoff fly ash created by a captive power plant at the nearby Bargarh cement plant. The resultant slurry has also spilled into the fields of the neighbouring villages of Banjibahali and Baragad.

Khaliapali villagers have accused ACC Cement of taking over 12 acres of land in the village and forcibly dumping fly ash on it despite protests. They said fly ash has become a nuisance in the village as it covers the houses and village water tank rendering water unfit for human use.

Additional District Magistrate Srinibas Kabi commented that the Regional Office of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) had noted the villagers' concerns. However, OSPCB Regional Officer S S Mishra said they had not received any complaint from the Bargarh administration.

India: Reliance Cement Company, a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, has started production at its first plant in Butibori, Nagpur. It is Reliance Group's entry into the cement market. The plant will service the Vidarbha region in eastern Maharashtra.

"The commissioning of the Butibori unit is a landmark event in the cement industry, marking the entry of one of the largest business groups of India into the sector. Reliance's foray in the cement industry is a natural extension of its interests in power and infrastructure businesses. Reliance Cement aspires to be amongst the top five cement companies in India in the next five years," said the vice chairman of Reliance Cement, Sumit Banerjee.

The company is currently commissioning two other plants with a total capacity of 10Mt/yr in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, costing US$1.08bn.

India: UltraTech, India's leading cement producer, is planning a 19% increase in capacity to 62Mt/yr by April 2013 from its current output of 52Mt/yr. Company chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who made the announcement, added that the outlook for the sector remained challenging.

"I believe the short-term prospects for the industry appear bearish. Regardless, over the medium to long term, the sector offers good growth potential," said Birla in a statement released after the company's annual shareholder meeting. "Undoubtedly, we are facing some tough challenges today."

Rising input and energy costs have limited margins at cement companies, while demand remains a worry amid a weakening economy and high interest rates which have slowed housing and infrastructure development in Asia's third-largest economy. Producers have also come under pressure after the country's anti-trust watchdog fined 11 companies, including UltraTech, saying they colluded to under-use their plants and create an artificial shortage of cement.

UltraTech has been in talks to buy one of two cement plants put up for sale by debt-laden Jaiprakash Associates, in western and southern India. The company reported a 14% increase year-on-year in net profit for the quarter ending in June 2012 to US$129m.