Displaying items by tag: Nepal

Nepal: The Investment Board of Nepal (IBN) has approved a US$140m investment proposal by a Chinese company to set up a cement plant in the country. The company is looking for a site in the eastern, central and western regions to set up the 1.1Mt/yr plant, according to IBN CEO Radhesh Pant.

Nepal: Udayapur Cement Industries (UCI) has had to pull its shutters down due to the disruption in vehicle movement caused by ongoing strikes.

UCI's General Manager Surendra Poudel said that the plant incurred a US$3.01m loss after it was unable to operate due to lack of raw materials. Cement production came to a halt after raw materials could not be supplied due to the protracted strikes in the plains for the last three months. Poudel said UCI was only able to produce 70% of its installed cement capacity in the last two months. Reportedly, it needs 100t/day of coal and 2000L/day of diesel. However, the required raw materials could not be supplied from India due to the blockade at the border points and general strike.

"It had become impossible to even manage the daily administrative expenses," said Poudel. The plant's total expenditure is around US$4.52m/month, including US$301,339 for salaries and US$90,428 for electricity and other expenses. Poudel said they would not be able to pay the salaries and electricity bills if the crisis persisted for one more month.

Nepal: Nepal has endorsed a US$360m Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) proposal made by China's Hongshi Holdings to establish a cement plant in Nepal in partnership with Nepal's Shiva Cement. This is the largest FDI pledge yet from China, according to the government officials.

China's Hongshi Holdings and Nepal's Shiva Cement reached an agreement in March 2015 to set up a cement plant in Nepal. Officials at the IBN said this is the third-largest FDI in cement plants in Nepal. As per the agreement, Hongshi Holdings will invest 70% in the project, while the Shiva Cement will invest the remaining amount.

According to Nepal's Cement Manufacturers' Association, there are more than 40 (mainly mini) cement plants in the country and domestic products only account for 85% of domestic consumption.

Nepal: Dangote Cement Nepal has said that it will start the construction of a plant in Makawanpur in three months, when all of the preparatory works, licensing and permissions are complete. D V G Edwin, executive director of Dangote Group, said that the company would also acquire a license for an additional mine by then.

Dangote Cement Nepal plans to start production within three years with an investment of US$550m. It will be Dangote's 15th cement plant and will have 6000t/day of production capacity.

Meanwhile, Dangote Group has provided US$1m of to Nepal's Disaster Relief Fund. The support was provided through Dangote Foundation, the corporate social responsibility arm of Dangote Group. Zouera Youssoufou, managing director of the foundation, handed over the cheque to prime minister Sushil Koirala on 17 June 2015. According to company officials, Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Foundation, has also sent a message of sympathy to the government and assured the foundation that support in the rehabilitation of earthquake victims would be provided.

Nepal: State-owned Hetauda Cement Industries Ltd (HCIL) has reported an accumulated loss of US$6.42m at the end of its 2014 financial year.

"We faced a loss of US$692,829 in 2011 - 2012 and US$95,251 in 2012 - 2013. Our annual loss increased to US$6.42m in 2013 - 2014," said Ramesh Shiwakoti, chief accountant of HCIL. "HCIL is facing a loss as we are focused on providing quality products, unlike privately-owned cement producers whose major thrust is on making profit."

HCIL pays its workers around US$251/month, while privately-owned cement plants reportedly pay around US$150/month. Although a HCIL spokesperson said that the company's loss can be partly attributed to its high wages, the workers said that the plants is making a loss due to lack of transparency and increasing political interference.

Nepal: Two private companies have signed an agreement of joint venture investment worth US$300m for cement production in Nepal. The investment, one of the biggest in Nepal's cement sector, has a 7:3 equity structure between Hongshi Holdings Limited of China and Nepal's Shiva Cement.

"This project will adopt a dry process with the use of 95% domestic raw materials," Xu Youyuan, Executive Vice President of the Chinese company said at the signing ceremony. He added that Hongshi had been attracted to Nepal's market by its booming cement industry in 2012.

Addressing the ceremony, Finance Minister of Nepal, Ram Sharan Mahat, said that the signing of this project was a landmark between the economic ties of the two neighbours and that he was happy to see that Chinese investors had shown confidence in Nepal. He even suggested that Nepal might become a net exporter of cement in the coming years.

Nepal: A team of technical experts from Nigeria's Dangote Group recently visited potential sites in Makawanpur and Dhading Districts to study the feasibility of opening a cement plant there.

The team, composed of civil engineers, geologists and mine experts, visited different sites in the district, according to K R Rao, team leader of director of Dangote Group's Cement Production Division. According to Rao, the team has sent limestone samples collected from the sites for laboratory tests. He said that Dangote would choose the project site and start land acquisition process within two months.

Dangote plans to open a 6000t/day capacity cement plant in Nepal, which would be the 15th country for Dangote's cement plant operations. The government has already approved the proposal to invest US$550m to establish a cement plant. For the purpose, the group has registered 'Dangote Cement Nepal Private Limited' at the Office of Company Registrar.

"We will start cement production by June 2017. Our product will be of high quality as we will put in place a high-tech quality control mechanism. Similarly, we are adopting vertical roller mill technology, which is a modern and efficient technology," said Rao. He added that Dangote has seen cement market in Nepal growing. "We expect the market to grow to 6Mt/yr by 2020." Nepal currently consumes 3.5Mt/yr of cement and imports 1.5Mt/yr. However, with big plants coming up, experts say that the country will soon be able to start cement to neighbouring countries. "We are eying the markets in Bihar and Utter Pradesh in India," said Rao.

As the government has prioritised infrastructure development, mega projects like hydropower plants, road, airport and irrigation projects are being implemented in different parts of Nepal. These projects are likely to propel demand for cement and other construction materials in the near future.

Dangote Group's technical officials have not yet decided on an alternative power supply for the proposed plant. "Though our initial plan was to invest in hydropower project, we have aborted it as it takes lot of time to develop. We are thinking of investing in coal or diesel-fed power plants to arrange a stable power supply," said Rao. The proposed plant needs a 35MW supply of uninterrupted power.

Nepal: On 13 January 2015, Ghorahai Cement Industry (GCI) stopped production due to a protest by its tipper operators. The tippers, which supply raw materials to the cement plant, have remained off the roads for the past nine days, putting pressure on Ghorahai to increase transportation charge.

"We have not been able to produce cement for the past nine days as tipper operators are not supplying raw materials to the factory," said a company official. Ghorahi Cement, which is located in Laxmipur, Dang Deokhuri District, produces Sagarmatha brand cement.

Tipper operators have asked the cement industry to increase transportation charge by US$1.49/t to US$6.48/t. They said that the cement plant has not revised its transportation charges for the past 18 months. Tipper operators launched protests after the industry refused to raise the transportation charge.

"We had been demanding revision in transportation charges for a long time," said Bharatnath Yogi, senior vice president of the Tipper Operators Committee of Dang. "We were forced launch the strike after the industry showed reluctance to address our demand."

Showing solidarity to the tipper operators' protest, truck operators have also stopped supplying cement and clinker manufactured by the industry to the market. Due to the protest, finished cement products remain in the plant's warehouses. According to a Ghorahi Cement official, 32,000t of clinker produced by the cement industry has remained unsold.

"Tipper operators have been pushing for a hike in transportation charges at a time when the price of petroleum products is coming down. This is not logical," said the Ghorahi Cement official.

Nepal: Sarbottam Cement Industries (SCI) has started commercial operation at its 400,000t/yr cement plant. The plant, which includes a captive power plant and a grinding unit, will employ over 1600 staff both directly and indirectly when fully functional. Saurabh Group, which has major share in import-export business of cement, steel, tea and woollen products, among others, set up SCI with an investment of US$64m. The cement plant has 45% foreign investment.

Nepal: Arghakhanchi Cement, based in Bhairahawa, is set to begin commercial production from 13 December 2014. The plant has a total capacity of 1200t/day of clinker and will employ 600 locals.

Siddhartha Group, Murarka Group and Kediya Group hold large stakes in the cement factory, with a minority stake held by a foreign investor. Rajesh Agrawal, director of Arghakhachi cement, said, "Targeting large-scale construction projects, we will produce OPC."

It has been reported that the plant will operate at 90% capacity utilisation, made possible by the installation of a captive high capacity diesel plant.

Arghakhanchi cement has set up three mines for limestone in Narapani and Khanchikot, both in Arghakhanchi district and Jonchha, Palpa district. According to Murarka, the plant was readied for operation five months ago and is only awaiting Nepal Standards accreditation from the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology before operation can begin.

With cement plants rapidly coming online, Nepalese media reports that the country is steadily becoming self-reliant in terms of cement supply. The total consumption in 2013 was 4Mt but this is expected to rise along with large-scale infrastructure developments in the coming years.