Displaying items by tag: JK Cement

India: The government has raised the import duty on petcoke to 10% from 2.5%. This follows the abolition of a ban on petcoke and furnace oil to the cement and power industries in Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh by the Supreme Court, according to Reuters. The increase in import duty is expected to create a rise in coal imports as companies change their energy mix. Shree Cement, JK Cement, J K Lakshmi Cement, UltraTech Cement and Mangalam Cement are all expected to be particularly affected by the tariff change. India is the world’s biggest consumer of petcoke, with much of it imported from refineries in the US.

India: The Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) says that the local cement industry has 100Mt/yr of excess production capacity out of a total 425Mt/yr. The sector is sitting on over US$9.4bn of ‘sunk investment in surplus capacities’ but the CMA expects infrastructure schemes including railway projects to increase demand, according to the Press Trust of India. CMA President Shailendra Chouksey added that initiatives such as the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train could raise cement consumption by 3 – 5Mt/yr.

In separate comments M P Rawal, the company administrator of JK Cements, confirmed the CMA’s assessment of the sector by saying that a slowdown in the construction industry in 2016 had led to a 70% utilisation rate of the country’s cement plants. He expected the same situation to persist in 2017. However, he warned that one bullet train project was unlikely to have a big impact on the situation.

India: JK Cement plans to invest up US$234m over the next 3- 4 years on an expansion project to increase its cement production capacity by over 30% to 14Mt/yr. Rajnish Kapur, the head of the company’s cement business, told the Press Trust of India that the cement producer is considering expanding existing plants and building new ones due to anticipated government infrastructure spending and a good monsoon. He said that it is in the process of evaluating expansion opportunities at its Mangrol plant in Rajasthan. It is also looking to build a new plant in Panna, Madhya Pradesh. It intends to finance the expansion through a mixture of internal funds and via loans.

India: JK Cement has increased its clinker production capacity at its plants in Rajasthan by 3.3Mt/yr following upgrades in cooler modification, de-bottlenecking and other upgrades. The investment cost US$7.8m. Following the upgrade the cement producer had a production capacity of 5.4Mt/yr in the state.

India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has found seven cement companies guilty of bid rigging and cartelisation and imposed a total fine of nearly US$30m on them. The accused companies are Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement, Jaiprakash Associates, JK Cement, Ambuja Cements, ACC and JK Lakshmi Cement, according to the Times of India. The fines are based on 0.3% of each company’s average turnover for three financial years. Each company has also been ordered to cease and desist such behaviour.

The ruling relates to a tender floated by a Haryana state procurement agency in 2012 that the CCI started investigating in 2014. Evidence cited in the CCI’s order includes text messages and phone calls made between officials of the companies.

UltraTech Cement and Shree Cement have issued statements saying that they will appeal against the fine.

India: JK Cement’s Chief Financial Officer AK Saraogi has forecast that cement demand will rise by 8% in the 2017 – 2018 financial year due to government spending on infrastructure. JK Cement Special Executive Madhavkrishna Singhania said that demand in the current financial year is likely to be aided by ‘good’ monsoons that will boost spending particular in rural areas, according to the Press Trust of India. The forecasts follow several years of poor demand for cement in the country. Ratings agency ICRA also predicts similar increases in demand.

UAE: India's JK Cement has revealed that its plant in Fujairah, UAE is due to reach full production capacity by 2017. At full capacity the plant will be able to produce 0.6Mt/yr of cement.

The plant is unusual in that it can produce both grey and white cement from the same kiln. The expansion of the UAE plant's production capacity is in line with increased demand for white cement in the Middle East, according to JK Cement’s Ajay Mathur.

India: JK Cement has stopped clinker and cement production at its Muddapur cement plant in Karnataka. It reported finding cracks in a raw material silo.

India: The National Green Tribunal has issued notices to 13 cement companies on a petition alleging that they are violating its orders and environmental norms as well as the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, by causing air pollution. The petitioner, Neena Pradeep, has also accused the cement companies of overloading their trucks with cement and clinkers in order to save toll tax, according to the Hindu. Violations by Shree Cement and JK Cement were highlighted during the hearing. They have allegedly overloaded their trucks by 200 - 250%.

India: Production has resumed at the 3Mt/yr JK Cement plant in Baglakot, Karnataka. It was temporality stopped following the sudden caving-in of the clinker silo roof in January 2016.

"Production of clinker and cement has resumed with operation of the kiln by making an alternate arrangement using two belts conveyors for feeding the clinker directly to the cement mill," said the company in a statement.

While production was suspended the company has been supplying the market using supplies at its depots. Normal levels of production are expected to be achieved by late February 2016. The clinker silo is expected to be repaired within six months.