Displaying items by tag: India

India: CRH has reportedly submitted a binding bid for the Indian assets of the newly formed LafargeHolcim, according to the Irish Examiner.

CRH is already paying Euro6.5bn for certain assets in the Americas, Europe and Asia that needed to be offloaded to enable the LafargeHolcim merger. The transaction, which will make CRH the third-largest building materials business in the world, is set to formally conclude by the end of July 2015, although it will take slightly longer to finalise the takeover of the Asian assets.

HeidelbergCement and Barings Private Equity (Asia) have also reportedly submitted bids for LafargeHolcim assets in India. The reports have suggested a price of US$600 - 800m for the Indian assets, which include Lafarge's Sonadih cement plant and the Jojobera grinding station in the east of the country.

India: Rising costs have reduced ACC's profit substantially in the April – June 2015 quarter, despite its revenues meeting expectations.

In spite of selling more cement, ACC's net realisation fell by 3% compared to the January - March 2015 quarter and was also slightly lower year-on-year. The fall was attributed to low cement prices in the June 2015 quarter, which is normally robust considering the fast-paced pre-monsoon activity, as well as a significant rise in operating cost per tonne. ACC's June quarter performance reflects the trend of cost pressures and weak realisations across the sector.

India: Shiva Cement's dispatches of cement and clinker in the April – June 2015 quarter rose by 16% year-on-year, according to MoneyControl.

India: PMK founder S Ramadoss has rebuked the Tamil Nadu government over its recent statement that Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation has sold 10m bags of Amma cement, benefiting 133,000 families, according to the Times of India.

Amma cement has been sold through 470 warehouses or godowns in Tamil Nadu from 10 January 2015. "Jayalalithaa Jayaram (chief minister of Tamil Nadu) announced that 200,000/month of cement is being procured from private cement manufacturers and sold through government godowns for US$2.99/bag. As per this announcement, the government should have procured 1.25Mt or 25m bags of cement. Since the prices of Amma cement are low, they should have sold like hot cakes," said Ramadoss. He added that the government statement means that only 40% of the procured cement has been sold so far.

Ramadoss alleged that those who approach the government cement godowns to purchase Amma cement are often driven away. "Tokens are issued for those who want to purchase Amma cement and about 100,000 people who got tokens are awaiting supply. If the Tamil Nadu government actually procured 200,000t/month then all those who applied for cement should have been served," said Ramadoss. He said that the only reason for this not to have happened was either that the amount of cement claimed by the government was not procured, or the procured cement was sold to the black market.

Ramadoss has demanded that the government of Tamil Nadu publish a white paper on the total amount of cement procured, the amount of cement sold and measures taken to ensure seamless supply of cement.

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.