Displaying items by tag: Shree Cement

India: The Competition Appellate Tribunal has set aside a US$945m penalty imposed on 11 cement firms by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) on accusations of cartel behaviour and asked the fair trade regulator to resubmit the case. The Tribunal also allowed the cement manufacturers to withdraw the 10% penalty amount already deposited with the CCI, according to the Press Trust of India.

The judgement follows appeals filed by the cement firms and their industry body, the Cement Manufacturers Association, against the two CCI orders passed in June - July 2012. The cement companies included ACC, Ambuja Cements, Binani Cements, Century Textiles Ltd, India Cements, JK Cements, Lafarge India, Madras Cements, Ultratech, JP Associates and Shree Cements.

The CCI had passed the orders after an investigation into complaints, including from Builders Association of India (BAI), against alleged price collaboration between cement firms.

The orders were later challenged at the Competition Appellate Tribunal, which ordered that 'the impugned order is set aside and the matter is remitted to the CCI for fresh adjudication of the issues relating to alleged violation" of the relevant sections of the Competition Act.'

India: Shree Cement's net profit rose by 18.3% year-on-year to US$19.5m in the quarter that ended on 30 September 2015 and its total income increased by 6.79% to US$265m.

India: Shree Cement commissioned a new 2Mt/yr grinding plant in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh on 30 October 2015.

India: Shree Cement is setting up a 2.8Mt/yr cement plant at Sikandrabad in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh. The plant will also include a 18MW captive power plant.

India: Petron Engineering Construction has received work order from Shree Cement in Bewar, Rajasthan. The order includes civil construction work, reinforcement and steel work of a ball mill structure for a contract value of US$1.79m.

India: Shree Cement's profit in the quarter that ended on 30 June 2015 fell by 62.5% year-on-year to US$16.3m, but its overall earnings beat expectations due to strong growth in its power business.

Its revenue grew by 4% to US$270m and its operating profit fell by 18.7% year-on-year to US$55.9m. Its results were affected by 8.2% higher power and fuel costs, 26% higher freight and forwarding expenses and a 55% depreciation cost. The cement business grew by 1.7% to US$238m, while its earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) was a US$7.46m loss. Overall performance was supported by its power business, which contributes 23% to total revenue.

India: Six foreign and domestic cement companies, along with one private equity firm, have expressed interest in buying the assets that Lafarge is divesting in India before it closes its merger with Holcim. The bids were in excess of US$627m.

The deadline for submitting non-binding bids for the assets expired on 16 May 2015. Ahead of that deadline, local media reported that bids came from Shree Cement, Chettinad Cement, HeidelbergCement India, The Ramco Cements, CRH and Blackstone Group.

As a precondition to clearing Indian leg of the LafargeHolcim, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) directed Lafarge to sell two of its assets in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. These are a cement plant at Sonadih, Chhattisgarh and a grinding plant at Jojobera, Jharkhand, with a total capacity of approximately 5Mt/yr. In its directions, the CCI said that Lafarge should sell its assets 'to relatively smaller players, having an installed capacity of less than 5% of their total capacity in the relevant geographic market.'

With the non-binding bids in, Lafarge is likely to shortlist bidders by the middle of June 2015. The deal is likely to be concluded in July 2015.

India: Shree Cement has completed the second phase of its Ras plant in Rajasthan, which will take its cement production capacity up by 2Mt/yr. "The company has completed the phase two of Ras New Cement Unit at Bangur City, Ras, Rajasthan and enhanced its cement production capacity by 2Mt/yr with effect from 9 April 2015," said Shree Cement in a statement.

India: Shree Cement has commissioned a 2.6Mt/yr capacity grinding plant at Baloda Bazar near Raipur, Chhattisgarh.

India: The government is expecting aggressive bids for all of the 46 coal blocks whose reallocation will start on 14 February 2015, especially for blocks assigned to end-use power generation. However, for the blocks apportioned to the unregulated sector, including the cement, steel and captive power industries, the cement sector is likely to step carefully. Cement companies lost allocations to 12 coal blocks following a Supreme Court order that held all captive coal allocations as illegal.

Imported coal prices fell sharply in 2014, easing the economics of cement production. If prices of imported coal turn volatile however, cement companies face further problems. "We cannot depend solely on imported coal prices staying low and neither can the government assure good quality coal on the open market. We expect to see aggressive bidding for the blocks," said H M Bangur, managing director of Shree Cement.

As per the bid regulations by the ministry of coal, there will be a forward bidding model for the steel and cement sectors. Forward bidding implies aggressive bidding for the coal blocks since the price of these commodities is market-driven. The government has to reallocate 46 operational coal blocks through auction by 31 March 2015.