Displaying items by tag: India

India: Saurashtra Cement has appointed Pradeep Mehta as its chief financial officer (CFO). He will succeed Virendra Raj Mohnot in the post, who is retiring, with effect from 9 September 2024.

Mehta has worked in corporate finance roles for nearly 30 years most recently as the President-CFO of Garware High-Tech Films. He also worked as the CFO of Arihant Superstructures and has held finance positions with Mabati Rolling Mills, Jindal Steel and Power Global Ventures, Essar Steel, Jindal Power and Grasim industries. He holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics and is a registered chartered accountant.

India: UltraTech is in talks to acquire Orient Cement, restarting discussions amid significant sector consolidation. This development follows UltraTech's recent acquisition of a 23% stake in India Cements. UltraTech has proposed buying Orient Cement for US$4.43-4.49 per share, offering a substantial premium over its current market value, with the deal valuing Orient at about US$874-$934m.

India: A boiler explosion at UltraTech Cement’s Jaggaiahapet cement plant has reportedly killed two people. Venkatesh Avula and Arjun Paritala were working at the plant on the afternoon of 7 July 2024 when the disaster occurred. The New Indian Express newspaper has reported that 14 others workers sustained serious injuries.

District Collector Srijana Gummalla said that a preliminary inquiry indicated the cause of the blast to be a gas leak due to high pressure. She said “A detailed probe has been launched to ascertain the reasons behind the incident. Officials will carry out a thorough investigation and submit the report. Based on the report, necessary action will be taken against the factory management.”

India: Dalmia Bharat has expanded the capacity of its plant in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, by an additional 1Mt/yr. The Kadapa unit's expansion, which cost US$25m, raises the company's total installed capacity to 46.6Mt/yr. The company plans to increase its total installed capacity to 110-130Mt/yr by 2031.

India: Cement volumes in India are projected to rise by 7-8% year-on-year in the 2025 financial year, driven by sustained demand from the infrastructure and housing sectors. This forecast is supported by the government's focus on infrastructure projects, sanction of additional houses and industrial capital expenditure, according to a report by the credit rating agency ICRA.

The Indo-Asian News Service reports that capacity addition in the cement industry is estimated at 63-70Mt between FY25 and FY26, with approximately 33-35Mt expected in FY25 alone. The capacity utilisation is expected to rise to 71% in FY25 from 70% in FY24, backed by higher cement volumes.

Saint-Gobain looks set to increase its presence in the construction chemicals market this week when it announced a deal to buy Fosroc. A definitive agreement has been set for the acquisition valued at just over US$1bn. The purchase will be financed in cash and is expected to close in the first half of 2025.

The light construction materials company has been growing its construction chemicals capabilities for several years now. In 2021 it acquired Chryso for Euro1.02bn and then it bought GCP Applied Technologies for Euro2.3bn in 2022. Acquisitions of smaller companies in the sector, including Duraziv and IMPAC, also took place. With regards to the proposed Fosroc transaction, Saint-Gobain highlighted in its press release that the deal was “supported by solid macroeconomic factors including the transition towards low-carbon concrete.” It also noted that Fosroc’s geographic profile would strengthen its own presence in emerging markets such as India and the Middle East. Chryso’s market share is mainly in Europe, Turkey and Africa. GCP’s is in North America, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

As Riccardo Stoppa, Saint-Gobain’s Business Director of Cement additives related to Global Cement Magazine in our May 2024 issue, the Construction Chemicals Business Unit of Saint-Gobain’s High Performance Solutions (SGHS) division broadly produces two groups of products for the cement and concrete sector: additives and admixtures; and a wider range of more recent products using newer chemistry approaches. Saint-Gobain’s total annual revenue is around €48bn/yr with SGCC’s contribution weighing in at around €1bn/yr. Most of that latter revenue derives from the former businesses of Chryso and GCP. Finally, Stoppa highlighted SGCC’s strength in North America, Europe and China but also highlighted the potential in the Middle East for its products. That last point makes interesting reading in light of the current Fosroc deal.

India was flagged as a benefit of the proposed Fosroc purchase. If any further reminder of the growth and market consolidation taking place there were needed, UltraTech Cement revealed this week that it is in the process of buying a 23% share of The India Cements. This story ties into the rivalry between the country’s two largest cement companies. Both UltraTech Cement and Adani Group are mounting up production capacity at pace through both acquisitions and by building new plants. All of this is rosy news for a company selling additives and admixtures to the cement and concrete market.

Saint-Gobain latest acquisition is subject to the usual regulatory conditions as one might expect. Yet, what Saint-Gobain didn’t mention in its statement, was that it reportedly had one of its sites in Türkiye visited in late 2023 as part of an international investigation into anti-competitive behaviour in the sector. Switzerland-based Sika was also linked to the case at the time. The UK-based Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced in October 2023 that it had launched an investigation into suspected anti-competitive conduct in relation to the supply of chemicals for use in the construction industry. It said it was working with the European Commission and that it had been in contact with other authorities, including the US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division. At this time Sika confirmed to Construction News that inspections had taken place into “suspected antitrust irregularities in the area of additives for concrete and cement.” However, it is important to note here that these were merely information gathering activities and no accusations of any breaches of competition law have been made so far. All of this suggests that Saint-Gobain does not seem too troubled by the interest of the various competition bodies with regards to its expansion plans.

In his interview, Stoppa told Global Cement Magazine that SGCC’s products allow cement and concrete producers to reduce the amount of cement used in their concrete. This is almost heretical thinking to a world that produces too much clinker. Yet Saint-Gobain is betting on exactly this outcome through the expansion of its construction chemicals division. Its purchase of Fosroc is the latest stage in this line of thought. It’s not the only company doing this. In May 2023 Sika completed its purchase of MBCC Group, another admixture manufacturer. Further sector consolidation looks likely.

India: Sumnesh Khandelwal has resigned as the Deputy Chief Financial Officer of JK Cements. He has been in post since late 2021. Prior to this he was the Deputy President – Commercial for JMC Projects and was the CEO of Robo Silicon Private. Earlier in his career he spent nearly 20 years working for UltraTech Cement, eventually becoming a Joint Executive President. Khandelwal is a chartered account affiliated to The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

India: Beumer will establish a production site in Reliance MET City, Jhajjar, with an investment of more than US$24m. The site covers over four hectares and represents a strategic expansion for Beumer's subsidiary, Beumer India. Construction is set to begin in mid 2024 with the plant's inauguration scheduled for September 2025.

India: Ultratech Cement has commissioned an additional 3.35Mt/yr of clinker and 1.8Mt/yr of grinding capacity at a unit in Tadipatri, according to Reuters. This expansion is part of a broader 22.6Mt/yr capacity expansion announced in June 2022, which will bring the company's total cement capacity to 154.86Mt/yr.

India: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has decided to continue its partnership with Dalmia Cement, allowing the company to receive an additional 70,000t of refuse derived fuel (RDF) from a temporary transit station at Gadakana. This decision comes as part of ongoing efforts to manage the substantial amount of RDF generated from daily waste processing, according to the New Indian Express.

An official from the civic body said "As the waste-handling site receives around 450t/day of garbage, we have agreed to allow Dalmia to take another 70,000t of waste. Previously, we had signed a contract with the company to send 70,000t of RDF to its Rajgangpur factory for co-processing within nine months. In the last six months, around 50,000t of waste has been sent."