Displaying items by tag: UltraTech Cement

India: Ultratech Cement plans to spend US$810m to build two cement plants in the state of Uttarakhand. The Industrial Development Department has issued a letter of intent to the Indian cement producer asking it to set up its new plants at Tuni, Dehradun district and at Someshwar, Almora district. The plant at Tuni will have a cement production capacity of 3.5Mt/yr and the plant at Someshwar will have a capacity of 2Mt/yr.

India: UltraTech Cement has appointed Arun Adhikari as an Additional Independent Director on the Board with effect from 3 December 2013.

India: Chandrasekhar Hiremath, president of the Shramajeevigala Karmika Sangha and a trade nion leader, has alleged that two cement plants in Karnataka are not paying the minimum wage to contract and full-time workers. According to comments reported upon by The Hindu, Hiremath said that the Regional Labour Commissioner in Bellary, Karnataka had failed so far to ensure that workers were being paid properly at the UltraTech Cement plant at Malkhed and Vasavadatta Cements at Sedam.

A national wage settlement signed between the employees' unions and cement producers entitles all contract labourers and full-time workers to receive the wages fixed by the Cement Wage Board. Hiremath further alleged that Vasavadatta Cements had submitted a misleading report to the Regional Labour Commissioner. Daily wages of contract labourers and full-time workers at the plant were US$7 as opposed to the US$9.50 minimum set by the board.

India: Ultratech Cement has reported a 52% year-on-year drop in profits to US$43m for the quarter ending on 30 September 2013 from US$89m in the same period in 2012. It attributed the fall to lower prices due to reduced demand.

"The results of the quarter have been impacted mainly on account of lower selling price and subdued demand. Cement demand remained sluggish on account of prolonged monsoon and low offtake from the infrastructure and housing sectors," the Aditya Birla Group subsidiary said in a statement.

Net sales fell to US$731m from US$763m. Ultratech sold 9.1Mt of cement and clinker in the second quarter of 2013. Total expenditure rose to US$666m from US$638m.

Ultratech saw a benefit from a reduction in the price of coal minimised by the devaluation of the rupee. However, optimisation of the fuel mix helped to reduce power and fuel inputs. The Indian cement producer said that demand for cement may grow 5% during the current fiscal year, driven by housing and infrastructure spends.

India: The Indian high court in Gujarat has ordered that a US$600m deal to sell the Kutch cement plant from Jaypee Cement to UltraTech Cement will be subject of outcome of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by local villagers.

According to the Times of India, the Kharai panchayat has filed a PIL complaining that the cement company has encroached upon grazing land, water bodies and public roads. The PIL demands that the encroachment should be removed and that the high court should intervene to make the area free from pollution caused by mining and the dumping of dust.

Counsel Mehul Sharad Shah contended that over 5000 hectares of land was given at a cheap rate to Gujarat Anjan Cement to create a cement plant for a lease period of 1997 to 2008 on the condition that the company would put up construction within two years. After not following the condition, it transferred the lease for US$120m to Jayprakash Associates, which merged with the J P Corporation. The PIL alleges that the company encroached on gauchar land, water bodies, public roads and began polluting by dumping alkali dust. Cuts in jobs for local labourers has also added to tension in the area.

The high court has said that the transfer of lease will be subject to final outcome of the PIL.

India: Jaypee Cement plans to sell a 51% stake in its 5Mt/yr cement plant in Gujarat to Ultratech. The value of the deal has been placed at around US$633m. A Jaypee official described the deal as 'finalised' to the Press Trust of India.

Jaypee and Ultratech have been in negotiations over the deal for a year. Ultratech reported to the Bombay Stock Exchange in December 2012 that it had not issued any press releases on the rumoured sale in a bid to calm market speculation.

In 2008 the owner of Jaypee Cement, Jaiprakash Associates, purchased purchased Bina Power Supply (BPSL) from the owner of Ultratech, Aditya Birla Group.

India: UltraTech Cement has reported a 13.5% drop in profit after tax to US$111m for the quarter ending on 30 June 2013. The cement producer, part of the Aditya Birla Group, offered no explanation for the decrease in profit. It did state that the quarter saw logistic and raw materials costs rise, linked to rises in railway freight and diesel prices.

The company's net sales for the quarter fell by 2% year-on-year to US$820m from US$837m. Profit before interest, depreciation and tax fell by 10% to US$205m from US$228m. Combined domestic cement and clinker sales were 9.94Mt. In its outlook UltraTech expected business to be challenging depending on housing demand and infrastructure spending.

In its development plans UltraTech reported that it has commissioned its 3.3Mt clinker plant in Karnataka. US$350m has been set aside to set up grinding plants, taking the company current capital expenditure total to US$2.25bn. Cement production capacity is planned to rise by 10Mt/yr by 2015 bringing the company's total capacity to 64.45Mt/yr.

India: UltraTech Cement, part of the Aditya Birla Group, is working on environmental clearance for a new US$415m cement plant in Tamil Nadu, according to Indian media. The project will have a cement production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr, a clinker production capacity of 4.5Mt/yr, a 75MW captive power plant (with additional power from diesel generating sets of about 18MW) and a 15MW waste heat recovery facility.

The public hearing for the project was conducted in May 2013 as part of the environment impact assessment and management plan. The plant is intended to two have two production lines. The total project area is about 263 hectares with a plant area of about 86 hectares.

UltraTech is one of the largest cement producers in India with a total capacity of around 52Mt/yr.

India: Chandrashekhar Hiremath, trade union leader and president of the Shramajeevigala Vedike, will begin an indefinite fast from 15 July 2013 on behalf of worker rights at cement plants in Gulbarga and Koppal districts of Karnataka state. According to The Hindu newspaper, Hiremath is demanding that cement plants keep their word on payment of wages to over 8500 contract labourers at four major plants.

At a press conference Hiremath said that Vasavadatta Cements, Rajashree (Ultratech) Cements, Chettinad Cements and Ultratech Cements had failed to follow an agreement made in 2011 stating that they would regularise contract labourers and bring them under the cement wage board. Currently, contract labourers are paid a wage of US$65-180/month. Yet under the wage board they would gain a minimum wage of US$256/month at the four cement plants.

India: The Indian Supreme Court (SC) today refused to give interim relief to cement manufacturers in their appeal against the interim penalty imposed on them on charges of forming a cartel, confirmed for now by the Competition Appellate Tribunal (CAT). It did, however, delay the deadline for the penalty by over a week.

The CAT had told the companies to pay 10% of the total US$1.1bn penalty imposed by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) by 16 June 2013 and it posted their main appeal for August 2013. The manufacturers appealed against this to the SC. Now the deadline for payment has been moved from Sunday 16 June 2013 until Monday 24 June 2013. However, the court insisted on their complying with the CAT's interim order.

The order was imposed by CCI against 11 major cement producers including ACC, UltraTech and Ambuja and their association. The apex court refused to lift the penalty order or reduce the rate, despite long arguments over two days by senior counsel Abhishek Singhvi for UltraTech Cement and Ranjit Kumar for Jaiprakash Associates. According to the modified order, the amounts shall be deposited with the tribunal and kept in a separate fixed deposit with a nationalised bank. The deposit shall be renewable after six months. The amounts deposited, with interest, shall be dealt with by the tribunal at the time of the disposal of the appeals of the cement companies.

The case was originally filed by the Builders Association of India before the CCI, alleging cartelisation by the cement companies. The director general (investigation) of the CCI found evidence of formation of a cartel by the cement companies, with capacity utilisation held down to control prices. The penalty was calculated on the basis of the annual turnover of the companies in question over a certain period.