Displaying items by tag: India
India: JK Cement's net profit fell by 8.5% year-on-year to US$10.9m in the fourth quarter of 2015, which ended on 31 Mar 2015. The net profit for the whole 2015 financial year rose by 61.7% year-on-year to US$24.6m.
India: Burnpur Cement started trial production from its new grinding plant at Patratu in Jharkhand on 23 May 2015. Full production, including clinker, will start from June 2015 when the clinker line is completed.
India: Kerneos India plans to complete the construction of its US$18.9m, greenfield 30,000t/yr calcium aluminate cement plant in Visakhapatnam within the next two years. The ground-breaking ceremony was held on 20 May 2015. The Vizag plant will be Kerneos' 12th manufacturing plant globally. Three of its plants are located in France, three are in China, one is in the UK and one is in the US.
Calcium aluminate cement is specialty cement used mostly by manufacturers of refractories. Demand for the specialty cement hinges directly on the growth of the steel industry. Segi P Idicula, managing director of Kerneos (India and Middle East), said that the Vizag plant's capacity would be taken up as the market grows. India currently consumes 50,000t/yr of calcium aluminate cement as refractory binder. Kerneos supplies about 10,000t/yr to Indian refractory makers from its French and Chinese plants.
Idicula said the Indian Government is aiming at a total steel production of 250Mt/yr by 2025. "At this rate, the Indian refractory industry will almost triple in size and there will be a corresponding rise in demand for calcium aluminate binders. We expect the refractory binder market to double from the current 50,000t/yr by 2020," said Idicula.
Currently in India, there are several small-scale merchant producers and several refractory producers manufacturing the binders for captive use. Kerneos, which has 30 customers in India, expects to double its market share in this segment in the next five years. Pierre Baillagou, Kerneos director (Industrial) said that the company plans to sell the entire production from its Vizag unit for the domestic refractory industry. "However, we do not rule out exports from this plant, as we have a strong market in South East Asia, the Middle East and Sri Lanka," he added.
Lafarge’s Indian divestments receive six bids
20 May 2015India: Six foreign and domestic cement companies, along with one private equity firm, have expressed interest in buying the assets that Lafarge is divesting in India before it closes its merger with Holcim. The bids were in excess of US$627m.
The deadline for submitting non-binding bids for the assets expired on 16 May 2015. Ahead of that deadline, local media reported that bids came from Shree Cement, Chettinad Cement, HeidelbergCement India, The Ramco Cements, CRH and Blackstone Group.
As a precondition to clearing Indian leg of the LafargeHolcim, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed Lafarge to sell two of its assets in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. These are a cement plant at Sonadih, Chhattisgarh and a grinding plant at Jojobera, Jharkhand, with a total capacity of approximately 5Mt/yr. In its directions, the CCI said that Lafarge should sell its assets 'to relatively smaller players, having an installed capacity of less than 5% of their total capacity in the relevant geographic market.'
With the non-binding bids in, Lafarge is likely to shortlist bidders by the middle of June 2015. The deal is likely to be concluded in July 2015.
India: UltraTech Cement plans to buy Jaiprakash Associates' Bhilai plant for US$330 – 345m. The plant has US$87.5m of debt.
India: JK Lakshmi Cement has reported an 88.6% fall in its net profit to US$0.95m for the quarter that ended on 31 March 2015. Total income fell by 11.4% year-on-year to US$93.8m for quarter.
For the year that ended on 31 March 2015, JK Lakshmi Cement posted a 2.8% rise in its net profit to US$15m. Its total income surged by 11.2% to US$367m for the year and its net profit after tax grew by 9.65% year-on-year to US$16.2m.
India: Orient Cement, a C K Birla Group company, has reported revenues of US$243m in its 2015 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2015. It also expects the demand cycle in the Indian cement industry to pick up within a couple of quarters and is ready to take up the opportunity with inorganic growth.
Orient Cement CEO Deepak Khetrapal said that the country is witnessing policy tweaking on the infrastructure front. "We can see that the GDP growth will happen on massive investment in infrastructure and this will pick up demand for cement in the country," said Khetrapal.
Orient Cement reported 225% growth in its fourth quarter 2015 net profit to US$13.4m. Its revenue, however, declined marginally to US$61.9m from US$63m in the same quarter of 2014. Orient Cement's revenue grew by 8% for the whole of its 2015 financial year, while its net profit was up by 93% to US$30.5m.
Orient Cement has already set a target of achieving 15Mt/yr production capacity by the end of 2020. "We are exploring all avenues to grow inorganically. We have already started investments in a greenfield project in Rajasthan. Also, we are looking at acquiring a few production plants with 2Mt/yr and 3Mt/yr production capacities in eastern India," said Khetrapal.
Orient Cement has invested US$236m at its soon-to-be-commissioned Kallaburgi plant to achieve 3Mt/yr of installed capacity. "We will make additional investments of US$78.6m by the end of the 2016 fiscal year. We have got all of the clearances for the project and the state government nod for limestone mining is expected within 8 - 10 weeks," said Khetrapal.
India: Saurashtra Cement's net profit rose by 107% to US$6m in the fourth quarter of 2015, which ended on 31 March 2015, compared to US$2.89m during the prior year quarter. Sales declined by 21.6% to US$21.6m in the fourth quarter compared to US$27.5m during the 2014 fourth quarter.
For the full 2015 financial year that ended on 31 March 2015, Saurashtra Cement's net profit rose by 227% to US$10.6m compared to US$3.25m during its 2014 financial year. Sales rose by 6.04% to US$87.8m during the year.
India: Prism Cement's net profit rose by 463% to US$9.73m in the fourth quarter of its 2015 financial year, which ended on 31 March 2015, compared to US$1.73m during the prior year quarter. Sales rose by 0.55% to US$240m in the fourth quarter of the 2015 fiscal year compared to US$239m in the same quarter a year earlier.
For the full year that ended on 31 March 2015, Prism Cement's net profit was US$2.31m compared to a net loss of US$12.9m during the full 2014 financial year. Sales rose by 12.7% year-on-year to US$877m in the 2015 financial year.
UltraTech plans to take over Century Cement
08 May 2015India: Aditya Birla Group´s UltraTech Cement plans to merge the cement division of BK Birla-owned Century Textiles and Industries, Century Cement, in a share-swap proposal with a deal value of US$1.64bn. The transaction, if approved by the boards of both companies, would help UltraTech add 13Mt/yr to its existing capacity of 65Mt/yr, taking it to the total of 78Mt/yr.