Displaying items by tag: Tamil Nadu

India: CARE Ratings has identified Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh as the key states expected to lead cement production capacity additions over the next decade to 2030. In a sector report the credits agency forecast growth of 120Mt in this period. It noted that Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were among the top states in installed capacity at present. It said that the southern region led with highest installed capacity of 33% followed by the North, East, West and Central regions. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are among the states with highest limestone resources.

India is the world’s second largest second producer but its per capita consumption is low, at 210kg. This is well below the global average of around 575kg/capita.

India: Ramco Cements’ Ramasamy Raja Nagar integrated plant has won the ‘Green Award 2018 for Industries of Tamil Nadu’ from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. It was bestowed in recognition of the contribution towards protection of environment made by the company. Special focus is acknowledged to best practices adopted to achieve best environmental quality in emissions, discharge of waste water, solid and hazardous waste management and green belt development.

India: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has issued a show cause notice to Ramco Cement’s Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu for breaching air pollution limits. CPCB inspectors found that the particulate matter (PM) and NO_x emissions were higher than allowed during an inspection in March 2019, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. The CPCB has recommended that the unit supplies continuous data transmissions and calibrates of all of its monitors to CPCB Online Continuous Emission Monitoring Systems guidelines.

India: The Builders Association of India has urged that the state government of Tamil Nadu take measures to reduce the price of cement following a 37% rise in the cost of the commodity. Chairman S Ayyanathan said cement prices had witnessed ‘sharp’ increase in the last 10 days, despite the cost of raw materials, labour and transportation remaining static, according to the Hindu newspaper. He also cited falling demand for cement due to a slowdown in construction activity in the state.

India: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has penalised four cement producers in Tamil Nadu for failing to follow emission standards. Chettinad Cement’s plants at Puliyur and Karikkali, Tamil Nadu Cements’ plant at Alangulam, Dalmia Cements’ plant at Salmiapuram and ACC’s plant at Coimbatore have been accused by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for not complying with emission standards for particulate matter, SO_x and NO_x, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. ACC and Dalmia Cements have been fined around US$420/day since 31 August 2018, Chettinad Cement has been fined around US$5000 for a 12 day delay in compliance and Tamil Nadu Cements has been fined over US$23,000 for a delay of 55 days.

India: A welder has died at UltraTech Cement’s Reddipalayam plant in Tamil Nadu. The contract worker died following a fall from a height of 8m, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. Relatives and local residents staged a protest following the incident.

India: Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation plans to start commercial operation of a new 1Mt/yr production line at its Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu in early 2019. Construction work on the US$100m project was originally started in May 2016 and it is due to be completed in October 2018, according to the Hindu newspaper. Testing and trial runs will then start in November 2018. Following the upgrade, the state-owned plant will have a total production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr.

India: Commissioning of the new 3000t/day production line at Tancem’s Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2018. Construction work is reported as almost complete. Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is the lead contractor on the project with Denmark’s FLSmidth hired by L&T to provide the design, engineering, manufacturing and supply of all equipment. FLSmidth’s scope of supply includes providing key components for the line including raw material crushing equipment, limestone storage, raw and coal grinding, single-string ILC pyro processing system with cooler, cement grinding and packing and loading systems.

India: The state government of Tamil Nadu has scaled down its support for the Amma Cement Supply Scheme. Sales data shows that the scheme failed to meet its targets in 2015 – 2016 and 2016 – 2017, according to the Hindu newspaper. Its highest level of sales was 52% of procurement in August 2016. The subsidised cement scheme was launched by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in 2014 to help lower and middle income groups purchase cement at subsidised prices.

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.