Displaying items by tag: India

India: Legal metrology officials have conducted surprise checks on cement warehouses at Nacharam and Orient Cement facilities in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The officials registered six cases pertaining to various violations on 23 January 2013 and also suspended a district inspector from Adilabad for dereliction of duty.

Legal metrology representatives raided warehouses owned by Birla A1 Premium Orient Cement Ltd, Maha Shakti Cement and NCL Industries Ltd in Nacharam, Andhra Pradesh and found 50kg cement bags that were light by 20-1000g. Following the raids, the officials seized 8210 cement bags from three warehouses.

Also on 23 January 2013, metrology officials conducted searches on Orient Cement Industries in Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh. The officials registered cases for using packing machines without getting them verified by the department.

S Rajeshwar, district inspector of Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh state, was suspended for earlier visiting Orient Cement Industries and deliberately coming back without finding any violations.

India: Acting on a tip-off that was received by the senior superintendent of police, Manu Maharaj, local police raided a store house in Chamanchak state and seized 5000 sacks of cement that had been packed in the name of leading names like Lafarge and Birla. The raid took place on 19 January 2014.

Four persons involved in the trade managed to flee. A case has been registered with the local police station. Police are currently looking for the absconders and gathering information regarding similar cement store houses.

India: Ambuja Cements has commissioned its cement terminal unit at Mangalore in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka. The US$57.1m project has a capacity of 1Mt/yr. With the launching of this unit, all of the states along the west coast will be covered by Ambuja Bulk Cement Terminals.

The terminal will provide Ambuja an opportunity to receive imported cement and also help to reduce the negative effects of seasonality at the Gujarat plant. The terminal will also reduce the logistic costs by having common vessels for Mangalore and Cochin Bulk Cement Terminal.

India: Jammu police, acting on a tip-off, seized 169 bags of low quality cement from a cement shop. The cement was labelled as Ambuja and ACC Cement.

"The cement dealer was selling low quality cement as Ambuja and ACC Cement to make a profit," police said. The dealer, Subhash Chander and shop worker, Vijay Kumar, were both arrested. Investigations are on-going.

India: The Cement Corporation of India's (CCI) Bokajan cement plant has halted production since 1 January 2014 due to a shortage of funds to purchase coal. Employees, unions and other local bodies have threatened to thwart any 'conspiracy of management' to close down the plant on 'insubstantial grounds' and have sought the intervention of Assam's Chief Minister to restore production.

Previously, the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) declared that the state-owned CCI was a 'sick' industry but following good revenues from the cement producer's plants in Rajbon, Tendur and Bokajan the Indian government decided to keep the plants running.

India: The Indian government is inching closer to the launch of a much needed Housing Start Up Index (HSUI), which is a measure of housing construction activity in the country, following a three year delay.

A joint initiative of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (HUPA) Ministry, the index will help policy makers get a clear picture about the trends in the housing sector and its contribution to the economy.

The HUPA Ministry and the RBI will release the HSUI website and its logo on 15 January 2014. The government had initially planned to launch the first set of data for 10 cities in December 2010.

The number of housing units built during a period indicates the demand and supply situation in the housing market. They are considered as a lead indicator of economic activities because of their strong forward and backward linkages. About 275 industries, including cement and steel, are dependent on the construction and housing sector.

The index would come up every quarter and will be based on data of newly built residential units in urban India from 2007 onwards. It would measure the change in the level of activities in the housing sector and identify the growth / recessionary tendencies in this and related sectors of the economy.

"The RBI is developing a pilot index based on the housing data from 25 towns. We are planning to release this by 31 January 2014," said a senior HUPA Ministry official. The detailed index would be released at a later stage. It will cover 50 cities that contain more than 100,000 inhabitants.

Presently, five countries in the world have their own housing start up index.

India: HCC, the civil works contractor for NHPC's Teesta Low Dam Project Stage IV (TLDP-IV), has resumed civil works that had been stalled for over eight months. Works halted on 20 March 2013 as HCC feared termination of the contract.

HCC had earlier noted that the work had stalled due to a severe financial crunch being faced by NHPC and accordingly requested that NHPC extend financial assistance to the tune of US$8.46m to HCC for resuming works. While NHPC agreed to extend the requested assistance, civil works contractor HCC refused to accept the proposal as it is and sought an increase beyond US$8.46m.

Aggravated with the constant modifications in terms of financial assistance and non-resumption of works, NHPC shot a missive to the contractor on 3 December 2013, directing the latter to restart the works within 7 days, failing which NHPC would initiate the action for termination of contract. In response, HCC has started the work of dewatering in the RCC dam pit and preparatory work for second stage concrete in the power dam area.

HCC has presented a final proposal to NHPC that the company has agreed to present to its Board. HCC has requested that NHPC to provide US$3.25m initially for clearing the past liabilities and US$9.76m for various construction material purchased. On this account, NHPC has requested the Board to release the interest bearing advance of US$32,530 to HCC for discharge of its partial past liabilities. The Board shall further resolve that all the construction materials required for balance works shall be procured directly by HCC after certification by the project. NHPC shall extend the assistance under this head in a phased manner based on requirement of material which shall be interest bearing and limited to US$97,590 against bank guarantees.

India: Zuari Cement plans to expand its cement production capacity with a 3Mt/yr cement in Gulberga. The Italcementi subsidiary has invested US$400m towards capacity development in spite of what it called 'tough' market conditions. Other projects include setting up a grinding plant in Solapur and a terminal at Kochi.

India: HeidelbergCement India has completed the sale and transfer of its cement grinding facility situated at Raigad, Maharashtra to JSW Steel, in accordance with the Business Transfer Agreement executed between the company and JSW Steel on 5 October 2013. The sale and transfer took effect from 3 January 2014.

India: A consumer court has asked a cement company to compensate a farmer for the cost of house construction as the quality of its cement was not found up to the necessary standards.

Rahimbhai Sherasiya started construction at his farm in Dhuva village with 200 bags of Hathi brand cement that he bought from Saurashtra Cement Ltd in December 2012 for US$871. As construction proceeded he found that the cement was of very poor quality. It could not hold construction material and further construction was not possible.

Sherasiya complained to the company and the authorised dealer but did not get a proper reply. Through company officials he sent samples of the cement to the laboratory of the Gujarat Engineering Research Institute (GERI) to get the cement tested for quality. GERI's report revealed that the cement was not as per the Indian Standard.

When the company refused to pay heed to his complaint, Sherasiya moved the Rajkot Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum and demanded compensation. This included the amount he had invested in paying for transportation and labour and purchasing construction material. The company denied all charges and claimed that GERI is not a government-approved agency and that its report was misleading.