Displaying items by tag: India

India: According to Accord Fintech, Burnpur Cement's new plant at Patratu Industrial Area, Patratu, Jharkhand was inaugurated by chief minister of Jharkhand, Shri Raghuvar Das, on 13 July 2015.

India: According to India Investment News, Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel has inaugurated a new grinding plant at Sanghi Industries' plant in Abdasa, Kutch.

The new grinding plant will have a production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr that will enable the company to boost its cement production capacity to 4.1Mt/yr from 2.9Mt/yr. The plant will cost around US$19.7m. The chief minister also laid the foundation stone for a 15MW waste heat recovery (WHR) system that will recycle waste heat of the cement plant into power. Sanghi Industries will inject US$23.6m to develop the WHR project, which it intends to commission in the next two years.

India: According to the Times of India, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) has served closure notices on the three cement plants in Malwani, Maharashtra. The plants have 48 hours to close.

Nearby residents had protested against the air pollution caused by the plants. An investigation by the MPCB showed that particulate matter (PM) emissions exceeded the allowed standards in February and March 2015. "This is among the swiftest action taken by the MPCB and we are very grateful to the board for taking up the matter so fast," said Godfrey Pimenta of Watchdog Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that had taken up the matter on behalf of the residents.

India: The Economic Times has reported that the capacity utilisation in India's cement industry has fallen 70% from 94% in 2007 - 2008 because of a supply and demand mismatch, according to data from the Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA). As such, the cement industry is staring at a 'dead investment' of US$8.66bn in the near term due to 100Mt/yr of unused capacity.

"Installed capacity stands at 380Mt/yr and utilisation is about 275Mt/yr. This extra capacity of 100 – 105Mt/yr has cost about US$8.66 – 9.45bn of investment," said Shailendra Chouksey, whole time director at JK Lakshmi Cement and vice president of the CMA.

The slump in the real estate industry has not helped matters as it accounts for about 15 - 20% of all cement demand in the country. About 55 - 60% of cement consumption comes from the retail segment, followed by real estate at 15 - 20%, infrastructure at 13 - 15% and the commercial factories segment at 10 - 12%.

The demand by real estate players has fallen by 40% in the last three to four years, according to Chouksey. The slowdown in the sector is coupled with weakness in rural demand and infrastructure development. Faced with the scenario, capacity addition is also expected to take a hit in the next few years. From about 25Mt/yr of capacity added in 2013 - 2014, new capacity additions will come down to 19Mt/yr and 14Mt/yr in 2015 - 2016 and 2016 - 2017, respectively, according to industry estimates.

"The capacity addition will go down as banks are not lending to cement companies as they know they will not get returns in such a scenario," said Anil Kumar Pillai, director and CEO of JSW Cement.

Now the cement industry is looking towards major government infrastructure and housing programmes to boost demand. To bring about major infrastructural development in the country, the government has announced The Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for 500 cities and the Smart Cities Mission. It has approved a US$15.7bn spend for the two schemes. It also aims to build 20 million houses by 2022 under the Housing for All initiative. "The cement industry is likely to improve by the second half of the current fiscal year on the back of huge infrastructure push by the government," said Pillai.

However, not all cement manufacturers are optimistic. "These programmes are good, but the question is how and when will they be implemented. There has been no off-take of cement for highway construction so far," said Chouksey. Transport minister Nitin Gadkari said in January 2015 that Indian highways would be constructed using cement instead of bitumen and launched a website in March 2015 for cement procurement and delivery for the purpose.

India: Accord Fintech has said that Sagar Cements' cement production for June 2015 rose by 0.82% to 1.31Mt compared to 1.29Mt in June 2014. Its cement dispatch for June 2015 rose by 0.66% to 1.31Mt compared to 1.30Mt in June 2014.

India: According to Cogencis MoneyWire, the Madras High Court has dismissed ACC's writ petition against a demand notice regarding a 50% royalty due over a mining lease for limestone removal from government-owned lands.

The royalty demand was for US$1.17m for 1988 - 1998. ACC was granted the lease to mine limestone from 140,000m2 of land at Madukkarai Village in Tamil Nadu and was subsequently granted another mining lease. According to local media, initially a lessee has to pay royalty at the rate of 50%, after which it was obligatory on the part of every leaseholder to pay 100% royalty.

India: In an update to news on 16 June 2015, which stated that US$49.8m or 27,420t of Nestlé's Maggi noodles has been recalled in India and are now being used as an alternative fuel at five Indian cement plants, local media has reported that Nestlé has paid Ambuja Cements US$3.14m for the service.

India: According to the United News of India, ACC has suspended limestone mining operations at its Chaibasa plant in Jharkhand because of regulatory issues. ''The limestone mining operations at the Chaibasa plant have been suspended on account of the requirement of further clearances from the government of Jharkhand,'' said ACC in a statement.

The company is in discussion with the concerned authorities and expects that limestone mining operations would resume shortly. Cement grinding continues with the transfer of clinker from sister cement plants and the purchase of clinker. ACC said that the impact of the closure of the mining operations at Chaibasa is not expected to be material.

India: Adesh Gupta, UltraTech Cement's non-executive director, has resigned from the board with effect from 30 June 2015. Gupta cited time constraints for pursuing professional and personal engagements as reasons for his stepping down.

India: According to the Financial Chronicle, Birla Corporation plans to increase its cement capacity to 15Mt in the next four years.

"At present our cement production capacity is 9.3Mt/yr. We want to take it to 15Mt/yr in the next four years," said Birla Corporation chairman Harsh Lodha. He said that there is an oversupply situation in the cement market at present as capacities have been built in the last three to four years on higher demand expectations, but demand has not risen.

Meanwhile, Birla Corporation is awaiting a limestone mining lease from Assam Mineral Development Corporation (AMDC). It had earlier signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AMDC to set up a 1Mt/yr plant there. Once it gets the mining lease from AMDC, it will form a joint venture company with the state-run corporation and get the project off the ground. AMDC will hold 12.5% of the equity and Birla Corporation will hold the remaining 87.5%. Lodha said that the proposed plant would be set up with a capital outlay of US$94.5m.