Displaying items by tag: Odisha

Consolidation in the Indian cement sector continued through December 2024. UltraTech Cement completed its acquisition of a larger stake in The India Cements late in the month. Then, this week, Nuvoco Vistas said that it was preparing to buy Vadraj Cement. Along similar lines, JK Lakshmi Cement also confirmed that it was moving ahead with the merger of its cement-related subsidiaries.

The UltraTech Cement deal was approved by its board of directors in July 2024 but it took until 24 December 2024 before it formally completed the purchase of an additional 33% stake in The India Cements. The deal was valued at around US$460m in mid-2024 by local press. UltraTech Cement now owns just under a 55% stake in the company and is its majority shareholder. Back in July 2024 UltraTech Cement said that The India Cements had a total production capacity of around 14.5Mt/yr of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Just under 13Mt/yr of this is based in the south of the country, mostly in Tamil Nadu, and 1.5Mt/yr is in Rajasthan.

The Nuvoco Vistas announcement follows a bidding process to acquire Vadraj Cement through a corporate insolvency process. Key parts of the deal include taking control of Vadraj Cement’s 6Mt/yr grinding plant in Surat and its 3.5Mt/yr integrated plant in Kutch. Both plants are in Gujarat. The agreement also includes limestone mining rights in the state and a captive jetty near the Kutch plant. However, the expression of interest for the insolvency proceedings, published in March 2024, revealed that the company’s operations have been suspended for five years. The grinding plant and the jetty were described as ‘partially constructed.’ Nuvoco Vistas has not disclosed how much it had bid to pay for the company, although it was keener in its press release to state that the transaction would see it become the fifth largest cement producer in India. It says that its cement production capacity will rise to 31Mt/yr; 19Mt/yr of this in the east, 6Mt/yr in the north and 6Mt/yr in the west. Synergies are also hoped for when the new assets are combined with Nuvoco Vistas’ current plants at Nimbol and Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.

Compared to the previous two news stories, the JK Lakshmi Cement merger plan is on a smaller scale but it follows the same trend. The cement producer presented its corporate restructuring plan to its shareholders in July 2024. It wants to merge JK Lakshmi Cement, its main cement company, with Udaipur Cement, Hidrive and Hansdeep. JK Lakshmi Cement runs two integrated cement plants at Sirohi, Rajasthan, and Durg, Chattisgarh respectively. It also operates what it calls ‘split location grinding’ plants at Kalol and Surat in Gujarat, at Jhamri in Haryana and at Cuttack in Odisha. Udaipur Cement operates one integrated plant in Rajasthan, Hidrive owns land next to the group’s Surat unit and Hansdeep is a preferred bidder for limestone resources in Nagaur, Rajasthan. The group’s clinker and cement production capacities are 10Mt/yr and 16.4Mt/yr. Its rationale is to gain synergies from production, distribution and logistics, to simplify the corporate structure, to improve efficiency and to raise shareholder value. That last one might be particularly useful for a cement producer looking to expand or sell in the future.

Further mergers and acquisitions are expected to happen in 2025 but at a slower rate than in 2024. Part of the dynamic so far has been that the highest demand is in the east and the highest capacity is in the south. Many of the deals announced in 2024 focused on markets in the south of the country. By contrast, analysts quoted in the Economic Times at the start of 2025 anticipate that new transactions might start to move to other regions. Obvious potential targets include Jaiprakash Associates and Heidelberg Materials. The first company became insolvent in 2024 and is likely to be sold off. Rumours of a potential purchase of the second company by Adani Group in the autumn hit the local press in October 2024. Doubtless there are other less visible possibilities too if the price is right. Read Global Cement Weekly in 2025 to find out what happens.

India: Adani Group has entered talks with the Odisha government to construct its first greenfield cement plant. Ambuja Cements, a subsidiary of the Adani group, is likely to build the 4Mt/yr unit for US$357 – 416m. The plant is expected to be operational by the 2028 financial year, according to the Hindustan Times. This follows Adani's recent announcement of a new clinker grinding unit in Bihar for US$190 – 238m. Funding for the plant will reportedly come from internal accruals.

India: The board of Shiva Cement has approved plans to build a 1Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Sambalpur in Odisha. The unit will be built with Bhushan Power and Steel at one of its operating sites. As part of the deal Shiva Cement, a subsidiary of JSW Cement, has the option to buy the plant for US$45m. Approval from the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation and other relevant governmental authorities will be required to set up the plant.

India: Ramco Cements has doubled the production capacity at its Jajpur plant in Odisha to 1.8Mt/yr. The company commissioned its Line II on Monday 1 April 2024 and started commercial production, adding 900,000t/yr to the plant's capacity. Additionally, an 18MW thermal power plant in Kolimigundla will be commissioned soon.

India: JSW Group’s new upcoming cement plant in Odisha will have a capacity of 10Mt/yr, the Hindu Business Line newspaper has reported. The plant will be situated in an upcoming steel complex, complete with a 900MW power plant and a 52Mt/yr port.

JSW Group’s cement subsidiary JSW Cement operates 19Mt/yr in installed capacity across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal. The producer plans to invest US$2.17bn to more than triple its capacity to 60Mt/yr by 2028. It has reportedly entered talks with financial institutions to raise US$723m through an initial public offering (IPO). JSW Group has invested US$3.61bn in Odisha to date, and is committed to investing
US$7.83bn there.

India: Toshali Cement has appointed Dhiren Nayak as its Vice President – Works.

Prior to this, Nayak worked as the plant head of an unspecified cement plant in Odisha in 2023, having earlier worked as a cement sector consultant. He notably held the position of Head of Operations at the Saudi Cement Company in Saudi Arabia from 2013 to 2019 and was a Technical Works Manager at Fujairah Cement Industries in the UAE from 2010. Earlier in his career he worked for FLSmidth, Lafarge Cement, Tata Steel and OCL India.

Toshali Cement operates an integrated plant at Ampavalli in Odisha and a grinding plant at Bayyavaram in Andhra Pradesh.

India: The Odisha State Pollution Control Board has granted Shiva Cement consent to operate its Sundergarh cement plant up to production volumes of 1.5Mt/yr, Reuters has reported. The producer commissioned the plant’s 1.36Mt/yr-capacity clinker line in June 2023. At that time, the plant had consent to operate with clinker production volumes of up to 660,000t/yr.

India: Ramco Cements plans to invest a total of US$91.3m towards growing its capacity during the 2024 financial year, which ends on 31 March 2024. Its planned investments consist of US$15.8m in an expansion to its Haridaspur grinding plant in Odisha and US$75.5m in the acquisition of land in Bommanalli, Karnataka, on which to establish a limestone mine.

During the previous financial year, which ended on 31 March 2023, Ramco Cements invested US$215m in capital expenditure.

India: Dalmia Cement has awarded a contract for the supply of fly ash and other industrial waste to Vedanta Aluminium. Under the deal, Vedanta Aluminium will supply fly ash for use at Dalmia Cement’s cement plants across Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya and Assam. It will deliver spent pot linings to the producer’s Rajgangpur cement plant in Odisha. The fly ash contract will remain in effect until 2028 and the pot lining contract until 2026.

Vedanta chief executive officer Sunil Gupta said “Strategic collaborations such as this will provide multiple benefits in terms of enhanced quality, sustainability and cost benefits to cement manufacturing, while helping us in gainful waste management. Our waste-to-wealth initiatives are designed to develop thriving value-chains for converting our by-products into resources for complementary industries.”

India: Ambuja Cements, a subsidiary of Adani Group, has been declared as the 'preferred bidder' for the Uskalvagu limestone block in Odisha. An e-auction was conducted by the state government for the block, situated in Malkangiri district. Adani Group has not disclosed the amount that it bid for the block, but said it covers 547 hectares with estimated limestone resources of about 141Mt.

The company must now obtain the statutory licences and permits related to mining operations to be declared a ‘successful bidder’ and subsequently enter into a ‘Mine Development and Production Agreement (MDPA)’ with Government of Odisha.