Displaying items by tag: India
India: The Pollution Control Board has despatched 20,000t of effluent sludge generated by textile units in the SIPCOT Industrial Estate in Perundurai to cement plants in Ariyalur district in Tamil Nadu state for use as an alternative fuel. Local media reports that local cement producers have started accepting effluent sludge from the dying industry after the success of a trial run that indicated no variation in the strength and quality of cement. Following the first order demand for another 8000t has been expressed.
India: The government has asked Coal India Ltd (CIL) to stay away from the initial rounds of coal block auctions due in January 2015 that are meant for the cement, power and steel industries. The state-run monopoly miner has, however, requested the government to reallocate a few blocks to it, including two that it had lost that were being jointly developed with private firms.
"We are a commercial producer of coal and we do not fit into the category for which the blocks are being auctioned," said a senior CIL official. "CIL will stay away from the first rounds of auctions." However, CIL is likely to participate in bidding when coal blocks are auctioned for commercial mining.
The company has requested that the government return the blocks that it lost following the Supreme Court's order rendering almost all allotments illegal 'because substantial investment has already been made by all parties in these blocks.' CIL had floated majority joint ventures with two private companies to undertake mining projects in those two blocks.
UltraTech ‘pulling back’ from LafargeHolcim bids
10 December 2014India/Brazil: UltraTech Cement is re-evaluating its decision to bid for the Brazilian assets of Holcim SA, according to local media. The Aditya Birla group company had submitted non-binding bids for the cement assets in October 2014. Any binding bids are due in January 2015.
The Brazilian assets on sale include three integrated cement plants and two grinding stations that share a total capacity of 3.6Mt/yr. There is also one ready-mix plant. Now, rather than investing in those assets, the UltraTech plans to focus and expand its domestic cement production, according to local media, but an UltraTech spokeswoman said that company does not comment on market speculation.
The decision to re-think the Brazilian investment may stem from weak demand conditions in the market. The Brazilian economy has seen sub 2% growth in the last 11 quarters. For the three months ending 30 September 2014, the Brazilian economy actually contracted by 0.24%.
Saurashtra Cement's company secretary Anupama Pai resigns
03 December 2014India: Saurashtra Cement Ltd has announced that Anupama Pai, who was appointed as vice president (legal) and company secretary from 1 October 2014, has resigned with effect from 30 November 2014.
Dalmia Bharat buys out SAIL in Bokaro Jaypee Cement
03 December 2014India: Dalmia Bharat has acquired the final 26% stake that it did not already own in Bokaro Jaypee Cement from the Steel Authority of India (SAIL), for US$150m. Bokaro Jaypee Cement has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dalmia. In March 2014 Dalmia acquired Jaypee's 74% holding in the company.
Bokaro Jaypee Cement was formed as a 74:26 joint venture project between Jaiprakash Associates and SAIL, for the operation of a 2.1Mt/yr capacity grinding plant at Bokaro, Jharkhand. The cement produced in the unit was sold through Jaiprakash's distribution network under the brand name 'Jaypee Cement'. However, Jaypee exited the venture and used the proceeds to address its debt.
Kerneos aims to commission new specialty cement plant by end of 2016
26 November 2014India: Kerneos Aluminate Technologies, a leader in specialty cements, hopes to commission a proposed US$19m plant in India by December 2016. The company has finalised plans to set up a greenfield unit near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
"We chose Visakhapatnam as the site for our own factory since it is ideally placed close to our customers in the eastern region. Being a port-based site, it offers the advantage of raw materials imports while serving as a base for exports in the near future," said president and CEO of Kerneos Jean-Marc Bianchi. The new plant will produce calcium alumina cement. It will have an initial capacity of 30,000t/yr. Kerneos plans to add a similar capacity at a later stage depending on the rate of product uptake in India. The Visakhapatnam unit will be Kerneos' seventh manufacturing facility worldwide.
JCB inaugurates two new plants in India
26 November 2014India: JCB India has inaugurated two plants in Jaipur facility costing US$80m. The 115 acre site consists of a fabrication and a manufacturing plant. Once fully operational it will employ around 1000 people.
"We decided on this majestic state because it holds strategic importance for future growth under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial corridor, of which a considerable part passes through the state," said Joesph Bamford, group chairman of JCB. JCB has invested nearly US$400m in India since its entry in 1979 with the Ballabgarh facility in Haryana. The fully-owned subsidiary of JCB also runs two factories in Pune.
India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has closed a case of alleged cartel activity among 11 cement companies due to a lack of evidence. The companies were named as Penna Cements, India Cements, Bharathi Cements, Dalmia (Bharat) Cements, Bhavya Cements, Zuari Cements, Ultratech Cements, Jaypee Cements, Ramco Cements, KCP Cements and My Home Cements.
Competition Commission of India to take more time to decide on LafargeHolcim merger
24 November 2014India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has said that the LafargeHolcim merger is likely to have an adverse effect on the competition in the cement industry. The anti-trust regulator has asked the two companies to publish details of the deal on their websites as well as publish them in four leading daily newspapers. It has also sought comments or objections from the public within 15 days of the merger details being published. CCI chairman Ashok Chawla has said that the CCI would take around two months to decide on the deal.
Indian cement demand unlikely to improve in the 2015 financial year
21 November 2014India: According to J P Morgan, Indian cement demand is likely to remain sluggish until the end of the 2015 financial year as government spending remains weak. However demand should pick up from the 2016 financial year onwards. "We would wait for clarity on the recently completed Ministry of Highways' tender for cement procurement, as roads can be a big driver and it has relatively fewer issues," said J P Morgan.