Displaying items by tag: India

India: Ambuja Cements has appointed Vinod Bahety as its CEO for a three-year term. He succeeds Ajay Kapur in the post, who has been appointed as the company’s managing director. Other personnel changes include the appointment of Rakesh Tiwary as chief financial officer (CFO), Madhavi Isanaka as Chief Digital Officer, Vaibhav Dixit as Head of Manufacturing and Ashwin Raikundaliya as Chief Sustainability Officer.

Bahety has worked as the company’s CFO since mid-2022. He holds over 25 years of experience in various management positions in the manufacturing and finance sectors. Before joining the cement industry, he was the Group Head for Merger & Acquisition at Adani Group. He holds qualifications as a chartered accountant and a cost and works accountant.

India: Shree Cement has commissioned its new grinding unit in Etah, Uttar Pradesh, with an investment of US$917m, funded through internal accruals. The plant’s location near railway lines allows for efficient transport of raw materials from Rajasthan, and the unit will distribute cement via roadways and a new highway-access road. It features ‘zero-waste’ operations, air-cooled screw compressors to reduce water usage and advanced filtration systems.

The plant will consume 5000t/day of fly ash from the adjacent Jawaharpur Thermal Power Plant. A solar power installation is planned within two to three years.

India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat), a material subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat, has commenced commercial production at its cement grinding unit at Rohtas Cement Works in Rohtas district, Bihar, increasing capacity by 0.5Mt/yr to 1.6Mt/yr.

With this rise in cement capacity, the group’s total cement production capacity now stands at 49.5Mt/yr.

India: The Ramco Cements has increased the capacity of its Kalavatala plant in Andhra Pradesh from 2Mt/yr to 2.4Mt/yr by de-bottlenecking and optimising the cement mill. The producer's total cement grinding capacity now stands at 24.4Mt/yr.

India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned a 3.35Mt/yr brownfield clinker line and one of two 2.7Mt/yr cement mills at its Maihar unit in Madhya Pradesh. The second grinding mill will be commissioned in the first quarter of the 2026 financial year. The producer also commissioned brownfield expansions at its Dhule grinding unit in Maharashtra (1.2Mt/yr) and Durgapur grinding unit in West Bengal (0.6Mt/yr), and launched its first bulk terminal in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, with a handling capacity of 1.8Mt/yr.

“Consequent to the above, the company’s total domestic grey cement manufacturing capacity stands at 183.36Mt/yr. Along with its overseas capacity of 5.4Mt/yr, the company’s global capacity stands at 188.76Mt/yr,” UltraTech Cement said.

India: The Competition Commission of India has approved Ambuja Cements’ acquisition of Orient Cement, months after the Adani Group company announced the US$451m deal, according to The Economic Times.

Ambuja Cements first revealed plans to acquire Orient Cement in October 2024, intensifying its competition with rival UltraTech Cement.

The Indian cement sector has seen increased competition recently, with both UltraTech and Adani Group companies acquiring smaller firms to expand market share. Analysts had questioned whether the acquisition would secure regulatory approval due to industry oversupply concerns.

India: UltraTech Cement has increased its production capacity by 1.2Mt/yr through debottlenecking efforts. The producer said that it had identified multiple efficiency enhancement opportunities across various locations as part of its capacity expansion programmes. The additional capacity includes 0.8Mt/yr at the integrated Hirmi plant in Chhattisgarh and 0.4Mt/yr at the Roorkee grinding unit in Uttarakhand. Ultratech’s domestic cement capacity now reportedly stands at 179Mt/yr.

India: Dalmia Bharat has commenced commercial production at its expanded cement grinding facility in Lanka, Hojai district, Assam. The expansion by subsidiary Dalmia Cement (North East) has added 2.4Mt/yr to the company’s total production capacity, which has now reached 49Mt/yr. Capacity utilisation stands at 60% on a pro-rata basis. The expansion cost US$80.4m, funded through equity, debt and internal accruals. The additional output is expected to meet rising cement demand in the northeastern region.

India: Swachha Andhra Co. chair K Pattabhiram and Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board chair P Krishnaiah said cement manufacturers must use refuse-derived fuel (RDF) in kilns as per the Solid Waste Management rules issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in 2018. The regulation requires a minimum RDF usage of 15% to reduce coal consumption in cement production.

Pattabhiram said 7000t of waste is generated daily from 123 urban local bodies, and stressed the need for daily processing to eliminate dumping yards. He urged cement plants within 400km of municipalities to comply. Krishnaiah added that a joint technical committee would be formed to assist cement producers in implementing the rule.

India: The Tamil Nadu government will impose a mineral-bearing land tax of US$1.82/t on limestone under the Tamil Nadu Mineral Bearing Land Tax Act 2024. This tax, payable in advance on mineral dispatch, is in addition to existing royalty charges. The announcement follows Karnataka’s recent decision to levy US$0.29/t on limestone mined.

The tax will raise production costs for cement producers in the region, particularly affecting Ramco Cements, which has 52% of its clinker capacity in Tamil Nadu, and Dalmia Bharat, which has 23%. Other Indian cement producers are less affected, with UltraTech Cement only holding 4% capacity in the area, and ACC 2%. This could mean that the cost increase is passed on to consumers, raising the price of cement.