Displaying items by tag: West Bengal

India: LafargeHolcim and HeidelbergCement have joined a bidding war for Emami Cement. LafargeHolcim is reported to have submitted an expression of interest via its subsidiary Ambuja Cement, according to the Hindu newspaper. HeidelbergCement has submitted its bids through HeidelbergCement India. Emami Cement has an expected value of around US$845m. Nuvoco Vistas Corporation, Shree Cement and Dalmia Bharat have also been linked to the sale.

Emami Cement operates a 2.5Mt/yr integrated plant at Risda in Chhattisgarh and a 2.5Mt/yr grinding plant at Panagarh in West Bengal. It acquired a 0.6Mt/yr grinding plant at Bhabua, Bihar in September 2018. In addition, the firm has mining assets in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh and near Jaipur in Rajasthan. Its main markets are in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. It markets its products under the Double Bull brand.

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: JSW Cement plans to double its cement production capacity in the eastern region to 8Mt/yr by 2023 – 24. It currently operates a 2.4Mt/yr plant at Salboni in West Bengal and a 1.5Mt/yr plant at Odhisa, according to the Press Trust of India. It intends to meet the target with a combination of upgrades and new units. It also plans to commission a new captive power plant at Salboni by July 2019.

India: JSW Cement plans to increase the production capacity to 3.6Mt/yr at its Salboni grinding plant in West Bengal. The unit has a capacity of 2.4Mt/yr at present, according to the Economic Times newspaper. The cement producer plans to strengthen its presence in eastern India starting with West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand. The plant manufactures Portland Slag Cement and it hopes to tap into local demand for this product with the upgrade.

India: Chandrababu Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, has laid the foundation stone for Ramco Cements’ new 3.15Mt/yr integrated plant at Kalavatala, Kolimigundla Mandal in Kurnool District. The project has an investment of nearly US$210m. The plant will include a waste heat recovery (WHR) unit and a captive power plant. A 25km railway line from Samjamala has also been proposed to support the plant. Once the required statuary clearances are obtained the plant is expected to take 15 months to build.

Other new projects the cement producer has scheduled include an upgrade at its Jayanthipuram plant in Krishna District to 4.6Mt/yr from 3.1Mt/yr with a 27MW WHR unit. The project has a cost of just over US$100m and it is expected to be commissioned in March 2020. The company is also upgrading the grinding capacity of its Vizag plant to 2Mt/yr from 0.9Mt/yr. This project has an investment of around US$25m and is also expected to be commissioned in March 2020. Once these three projects are completed Ramco Cements says that it will become the largest producer in Andhra Pradesh with a production capacity of nearly 10Mt/yr.

In the east of the country Ramco Cements us building a new 0.9Mt/yr grinding plant in Odisha with a railway terminal for around US$70. This is expected to be commissioned by September 2019. In West Bengal the company is upgrading the grinding capacity at its Kolaghat plant in East Midnapore district to 2Mt/yr from 0.9Mt/yr for around US$60m. This project also includes a railway terminal and it is scheduled for commissioning in April 2019. Altogether the company plans to reach a cement production capacity of 20Mt/yr by 2020 across the country.

India: Emami Group is considering an initial public offering (IPO) for its cement subsidiary, Emami Cement. The IPO is intended to generate funds for expansion, according to sources quoted by the Hindu newspaper. The company has appointed a consultant to explore public issue prospects and preliminary discussions have started with merchant bankers. The cement producer has invested over US$575m to double its production capacity to 8Mt/yr from 4.4Mt/yr in the current financial year with plants in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.

India: Ramco Cement has ordered three vertical roller mills from Germany’s Loesche. It has ordered two LM 41.2+2 CS type mills with two grinding rollers and two support rollers with a power range of 3000kW and a capacity of 130t/hr for two of its cement plants to grind the Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC). The first mill will be installed at Kolaghat, West Bengal, where Ramco Cement is upgrading a grinding plant to 2Mt/yr from 0.95Mt/yr. The second mill will be used at a grinding plant in Gobburupalam, Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

A third mill has been ordered for a newly-built plant at Haridaspur in Odisha. Here, a LM 46.2+2 CS type mill with a capacity of 3750kW will be used to grind PPC with a throughput of 165t/hr. This order also includes mill fans, bag-type filters and further auxiliary equipment. It will all be delivered by the end of 2018.

India: JSW Cement has inaugurated a 6.5km railway siding to its 2.4Mt/yr Salboni cement grinding plant in West Bengal. The railway siding will connect the unit to the main railway line between Godapiasal and Salboni, according to the Economic Times newspaper. The new connection is expected to reduce logistics costs at the site.

The rail yard at the plant has five lines running parallel and connected to each other. Two lines are designated for receiving raw materials, two lines are dedicated for cement loading and the fifth line is reserved for engine reversal. The plant initially intends to receive two rakes of raw materials per day and one rake per day of cement for despatch.

India: UltraTech Cement has agreed an acquisition schedule to buy the cement assets of Century Textiles & Industries. The cement production subsidiary of BK Birla Group comprises three integrated plants in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra respectively with a combined production capacity of 11.4Mt/yr and a 1Mt/yr grinding plant in West Bengal.

The takeover has been arranged via a demerger process whereby Century Textiles’ shareholders will be given shares in UltraTech Cement. The deal is subject to approval from shareholders, creditors, competition bodies and others. It is expected to be completed by early 2019.

India: Ramco Cements has entered into an agreement with Ramco Industries, a fellow subsidiary of Ramco Group, to buy a 216,000t/yr grinding plant at Kharagpur in West Bengal. The deal covers the land and equipment at the site. The cement producer will pay US$2.6m as part of the agreement.