Displaying items by tag: India

India: Sanghi Industries has appointed Sukuru Ramarao as its chief executive officer (CEO). He succeeds Ravi Sanghi, who was the chair and managing director, following the acquisition of a majority stake in the company by Adani Group subsidiary Ambuja Cements. Sanjay Kumar Khajanchi has been appointed as the chief financial officer, Manish Mistry as company secretary and Ajay Kapur as chair of the company’s board of directors.

Sukuru Ramarao holds over 35 years of professional experience in the building materials sector. He started working for Ambuja Cements in the late 1990s, eventually becoming the company’s chief manufacturing officer in the 2021. He then became the CEO of Adani Group’s cement business in 2023. He holds an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from the Sri Venkateswara University in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

Sanjay Kumar Khajanchi has worked for Ambuja Cements for over 20 years, reaching the position of Head - Finance & Controlling in 2021. He holds a bachelors degree in commerce from St Xavier's College in Kolkata, qualifications from the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland, as well as various professional financial accreditations.

Manish Mistry has worked with a wide variety of companies for over 15 years including Bell Ceramics, Alembic Group, Cadila Group and GACL before joining Adani Group in 2022. He is a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and holds a degree in commerce and law from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda in Vadodara, Gujarat.

Ajay Kapur has been the CEO of Adani Group’s cement business since mid-2022. He has worked for over 25 years in the cement sector, originally starting at Ambuja Cements in 1993. He subsequently became the company’s managing director and CEO from 2014 to 2019. He then was the head of the aluminium and power division at Vedanta Group. Kapur holds an undergraduate degree in economics from St Xavier's College, a master of business administration (MBA) degree from the K J Somaiya Institute of Management and has completed the Advanced Management Programme at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

India: UltraTech Cement plans to more than double the share of renewable electricity in its energy mix to 60% by the 2026 financial year, which will end on 31 March 2026, from 22% at present. Asian News International has reported that the group plans to reach 85% renewable energy use by 2030. It presently has 691MW-worth of installed renewable power capacity, comprised of 429MW of contracted renewable power plants and 262MW of waste heat recovery (WHR) plants. Other decarbonisation technologies in UltraTech Cement’s operations besides renewable power include its use of compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas as vehicle fuel.

India: Adani Group has committed to investing US$100bn in the decade to the end of 2033 towards transitioning its operations to net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050. The scope of investments will include the group’s cement business in addition to logistics and power generation. The group has also set a target for five of its subsidiaries, including ACC and Ambuja Cements, to become net zero by 2050 or earlier. Adani Enterprises currently plans to build a 10GW/yr-capacity solar panel plant, a 10GW/yr-capacity wind turbine plant and a 5GW/yr-capacity hydrogen electrolysers plant.

Adani Group said "The roadmap to the net zero transition will require green hydrogen solutions in its last mile. To make green hydrogen adoption feasible, Adani's track record in large-scale renewables and fully integrated manufacturing with end-to-end engineering, procurement and construction capability — all in one single location — uniquely positions it to secure lower costs."

India: Adani Group announced planned investments of US$204m in its cement operations in the state of Uttarakhand. The Business Standard newspaper has reported that the investments are made up of US$36m in an expansion to more than double the capacity of Ambuja Cement’s Roorkee grinding plant to 3Mt/yr and US$168m in the construction of a new 4Mt/yr grinding plant.

India: Sweden-based SaltX Technology has partnered with Dalmia Cement (Bharat) to launch a pilot trial of fuel-free cement production using its electric arc calciner (EAC) in 2024. The pilot plant will be situated at Dalmia Cement (Bharat)’s Rajganga Nagpur cement plant in Odisha. Pre-study work, including material tests at SaltX Technology's test and research centre in Hofors, Sweden, will commence in early 2024.

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Mahendra Singhi said "In line with our ambition to further reduce our carbon footprint, we are delighted to collaborate with SaltX, a leading innovator with electrification and carbon capture technology that has great potential to play a decisive role in our intense work to reduce our carbon emissions."

SaltX Technology CEO Carl-Johan Linér said "I am pleased to confirm that we have now started working together on-site for the upcoming pilot in India. We have met all key individuals in the project and look forward with confidence to starting the pre-study next year."

China/India: Research organisation Fitch Ratings has forecast continued ‘steady’ growth of 6 – 8% year-on-year in cement demand in India in 2024. Meanwhile, it expects demand in China to remain ‘weak,’ amid low activity levels in the residential construction sector. Nonetheless, Fitch Ratings said that rising installed cement capacity will limit growth in producers’ profit margins in India, while producers’ profit margins will stabilise in China.

India: Ramco Cements has raised the clinker capacity of its Kolimigundla cement plant by 26%, to 3.15Mt/yr from 2.5Mt/yr. The Hindu newspaper has reported that Ramco Cements plans to invest US$192m in capital expenditure (CAPEX) during the 2024 financial year (1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024), and a further US$24 – 30m in on-going projects in the 2025 financial year. The producer said that its projects, involving its cement, concrete and energy operations, are proceeding ‘on track.’ These include an expansion of its Odisha grinding plant to double its capacity to 1.8Mt/yr.

India: Star Cement is reportedly considering acquiring new cement assets in the southern India market. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the producer expects cement production capacity there to have a lower valuation than in its native north east India, due to its larger scale.

CEO Vinit Kumar Tiwari said “We have to find a target which is suitable for our appetite. We are open to all the areas. Obviously, the southern market is a more glut market. So, if we find any opportunity there at a good valuation, only then will we go for it.” He added “The next round of consolidation in the industry should be in the southern market because this market is quite fragmented and players are operating at a very low capacity utilisation.”

Star cement expects to raise its capacity by 70% to 9.7Mt/yr by early 2026 through US$264m-worth of expansion projects, including an expansion to the clinker line of its Lumshnong cement plant in Meghalaya. To date, it has invested US$108m in the projects.

India: Adani Group says that it will power 60% of its cement production using renewable energy by 2028. In a post on X, the group noted that its Adani Cement business uses fly ash or slag in cement production at 90% of its plants.

India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has appointed Puneet Yadu Dalmia as its managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) for a five-year term with effect from 8 December 2023. He succeeds Mahendra Singhi, who will become the strategic advisor to the managing director and CEO.

Puneet Dalmia has been the managing director of parent company Dalmia Bharat since 2004. Prior to this he co-founded JobsAhead.com in 1999, which was sold to Monster.com in 2004. He is also the chair of the Development Council for Cement Industry (DCCI) set up by the Government of India in 2021. He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Indian Institute Of Management in Bangalore and an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.