Displaying items by tag: Kerala

India: The Kerala High Court is investigating how files have disappeared from its premises regarding a corruption case into Malabar Cement. The files were part of a 2015 petition, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged instances of corruption in the cement producer, according to the Press Trust of India. Justice B Sudheendra Kumar described the situation as ‘alarming.’

In early 2017 the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, a corruption body in the state of Kerala, arrested Prakash Joseph, a legal officer at Malabar Cements, in relation to a loss of US$0.4m. Previous to this in mid-2016 the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested K Padmakumar, the managing director of Malabar Cements, on charges of corruption and irregularity.

India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dropped a complaint against JSW Cement concerning denial of supply of cement. The complaint was made by Kerala-based Ramachandran V, an authorised dealer of JSW Cement, according to the Economic Times newspaper. It was alleged that the cement producer had abused its market position by denying the dealer supply of cement in breach of an agreement. In an order dated in late February 2018 the CCI ruled that JSW Cement did not hold a dominant position in the local market. Subsequently the complaint of abuse of a dominant position was not relevant.

India: ICRA is expecting cement demand is pick up in the fourth quarter of the 2017 – 2018 financial year following weak real estate activity, sand shortage and Goods and Service tax (GST) implementation issues in the first half of the year. In its October 2017 update the credit ratings agency said that demand was expected to benefit from the housing sector and road and irrigation projects in the infrastructure sector, according to the Press Trust of India. It added that the profitability of the industry depends on the industry’s ability to control prices given that higher input costs for fuel and freight are expected.

The credit ratings agency said that cement demand remained subdued across the country due to various local issues. In the North, especially in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, the offtake had been impacted by a sand shortage and lack of labour. In the West the implementation of the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) Bill resulted in construction activity slowing down. In the South, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were hit as demand was affected by the sand shortage, drought impacting rural offtake and weak housing activity. A recent ban on sand mining in Bihar is also likely to reduce sales volume growth in the eastern region in coming months.

India: Gujarat’s Sanghi Cements is preparing to build a floating terminal at Kochi Port in Kerala. The plan is intended to targeted markets in the south of India, according to The Hindu newspaper. The floating terminal will consist of a berthed ship with a bagging plant on-board and it will have a capacity of 0.3Mt/yr.

“Once the project becomes operational, Kochi Port will be the first major port in the country to have a floating cement terminal,” said AV Ramana, Deputy Chairman of the port. He added that Sanghi Cements has similar facilities in the minor ports of Kutch and Navlakhi in Gujarat and Dharamtar in Maharashtra.

The port is also commissioning more automated cement bagging plants. Ambuja Cement, UltraTech Cement and Zuari Cements each operate units at the port and Penna Cement and Malabar Cements will set up bagging plants in November 2017 and March 2019 respectively. The total capacity of the five units is estimated to be around 3Mt/yr.

India: Sagar Cements, India Cements and Bharathi Cements have continued to defend public concerns over cement pricing due to economic trends beyond their control. In a press conference the producers blamed rising input costs, distribution costs, taxes and high margins by dealers, according to the Times of India newspaper. They added that the key demand drivers for the industry are residential house building and government projects.

S Srikanth Reddy, Executive Director of Sagar Cements forecast that cement demand will rise by 10 – 18% in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over the next two to three years due to large government-run infrastructure projects. Tamil Nadu and Kerala are expected to rise by no more than 5% and Karnataka is expected to rise by 2 – 5%.

However, despite increases in the short term, the cement producers forecast problems for the industry in the south of the country, and in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in particular, due to production overcapacity as producers increased their installed capacity in anticipation of high demand. At present they say that producers are forced to run plants at 60% production utilisation rates with high volatility in price rates in a highly fragmented market with over 50 brands.

India: The Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, a corruption body in the state of Kerala, has arrested Prakash Joseph, a legal officer at Malabar Cements, in relation to a loss of US$0.4m. The state-owned cement producer signed a contract with a company owned by businessman VM Radhakrishnan to sell cement, according to the Hindu newspaper. Staff at Radhakrishnan’s company withdrew a deposit for the deal without the knowledge of Malabar Cements. Prakash Joseph allegedly misinformed his employers about the location of the court handling a legal challenge to the withdrawal. Radhakrishnan has previously been investigated by police in connection to corruption charges at Malabar Cements.

India: Malabar Cements will restart operations later in October 2016, says EP Jayarajan, the Industry Minister of Kerala. The publicly owned cement producer stopped production due to lack of supply of raw materials in late September 2016, according to the Hindu newspaper. Laterite and limestone required for production will be sourced from Kasaragod and Rajasthan respectively.

India: Malabar Cements will restart operations at its Cherthala cement grinding plant following approval from the Kerala High Court. The cement producer says its has been granted permission to produce Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) using clinker, gypsum and fly ash at the plant. Previously the Bureau of Indian Standards objected to the cement producer manufacturing PPC.

India: Cement consumption in India fell for the first time in nearly 20 years in the three months to 30 June 2011, with a political impasse in large consumer states holding up infrastructure and realty projects. Demand fell by 0.68% during the period compared with the corresponding period in 2010 but demand changes were different depending on location. In Andhra Pradesh, demand contracted by 21% and in Karnataka it was down by 8.04%, according to data from Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA).

Elsewhere, demand was down by 2% in June 2011 in Kerala and in Tamil Nadu, it was down by 1.9%. In comparison Gujarat saw cement demand grow by 4.9%, but growth was less strong than the same period of 2010, when 15% cement demand growth was seen.

The demand for cement is not assisted by problems that are expected to hinder government's proposed USD107bn investment in state road development during the 12th Plan period. The government has cited a lack of capacity in the private sector to make large investments, political sensitivity surrounding road-tolling, land acquisition disputes (which have caused a slow-down and resentment from locals at the site of the Formula 1 circuit site in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh) and a shortage of trained manpower as key problem-areas that may hamper the execution of the programme, due to start in 2012.

It is estimated that because of these problems, around 80% of the cost of the proposed investment will have to be met by public funds. The plan includes the construction of over 30,000km of new dual-carriageways, 5000km of four-lane highways and another 41,500km of single-track roads that are due for restructuring. The plan stipulates that the roads will be finished with either cement-based finishes or asphalt.