Displaying items by tag: India

India: Credit rating agency Fitch Ratings has forecast a 15% year-on-year decline in domestic cement demand in the 2021 financial year, which ends on 30 March 2021 due to “weak property demand and a sluggish construction cycle.” Fitch Ratings gave the reasons for the decline as “low consumer confidence caused by business uncertainty and unemployment concerns,” causing “underlying appetites of financial institutions to lend to the construction sector to remain weak” in spite of the Reserve Bank of India’s temporary funding relief measures to the sector, which include “loan restructuring, moratoriums and relaxed lending limits.”

Fitch Ratings reported that steel demand will also fall by 10% in the 2021 financial year.

Iran: Data from the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) shows that cement producers exported 5.85Mt of cement in the first five months of the local 2021 financial year, which began on 20 March 2020. The value of cement exports fell by 52% year-on-year to US$128m from US$266m, according to the Tehran Times newspaper. Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan were the top destination for the exports. Cement was also sent to India, Russia, Qatar, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, and Oman.

In its 2020 financial year Iran exported a total of US$7.0bn-worth of building materials and produced 85Mt of cement against a domestic consumption of 65Mt.

India: Ramco Cements has commissioned a 9MW waste heat recovery (WHR) power plant at its 3.7Mt/yr Jayanthipuram, Andhra Pradesh cement plant. Chief executive officer (CEO) Av Dharmakrishnan said, “Besides savings in power cost, the installation of WHR systems in our plants will also reduce CO₂ emissions substantially, which will have a positive impact on the environment.”

BusinessLine Online News has reported that Ramco Cements is currently building a 12MW WHR power plant at its upcoming Kolumigundla, Andhra Pradesh cement plant. When the plant becomes operational it, will bring the company’s total WHR power generation capacity to 39MW.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has warned local cement producers to rein in their more outlandish claims. In a letter reported upon by the Economic Times newspaper this week, the government department has accused some manufacturers of making both objective and subjective claims about their products that strained credulity and didn’t fit the corresponding official standards. One industry source from the newspaper blamed the crackdown on some producers claiming that their cement products helped protect people from Covid-19! In their view the bureau was now over-enforcing its rules in retaliation. Given the severity of the outbreak in India - it has the second highest number of reported cases in the world this week - the response of the authorities is understandable to say the least.

The distinction between objective and subjective exaggeration that the BIS makes it worth looking at in more detail. For example, objective or supposedly fact-based claims the BIS cited included: ‘Protect Steel in Concrete’; ‘Protect Concrete from Corrosion’; ‘Corrosion Resistant’; ‘Weather Proof’; and ‘Damp Proof.’ Then, there were subjective, or more emotionally evocative, claims along the lines of ‘strong’ or ‘high performance.’ The BIS then outlines the specific ways in which objective and subjective assertions can be used. Objective claims should be avoided on marketing and packaging material. Subjective claims should, “explicitly indicate that such claims are not covered under the scope of BIS licence granted to them and the responsibility of such claims lies with them.”

Marketing is a big part of standing out in the crowded Indian cement market with producers sponsoring major sports teams. This might seem odd to readers elsewhere in the world but it demonstrates the target market, the importance of cement as a commodity to the general public and the power of brand awareness. Amubja Cement’s logo of a man with a Charles Atlas style physique cuddling a building sums up the message they want to convey: strength. No wonder producers are wary of the BIS wading in.

Standards also appeared in another news story this week with the announcement that Taiwan Cement Corporation (TCC) had obtained the first cement product carbon footprint label issued by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in the country. Its products will be marked with carbon footprint labels from the fourth quarter of 2020.

This shows a general trend in cement products towards showing sustainability credentials from putting environmental footprint data in front of specifiers for large projects towards making it a more basic retail selling point. Lots of other cement producers around the world have done and/or are doing similar things, from the dedicated slag cement manufacturers to the larger producers routinely releasing and promoting new low-CO₂ products. To pick one example from many, in July 2020 LafargeHolcim France introduced ‘360Score CO₂ emissions reduction ratings’ to its bagged cement range. The score, between ’A’ and ’D,’ corresponds to the factor of CO₂ compared to CEM-I Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), with ‘A’ products producing less CO₂ than ‘D’ products in their overall creation.

To look at an older example of the need for standards generally, building collapses in Nigeria appeared to increase post-2000, with the misuse of lower-grade cements blamed for the situation. The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) took action in 2014, local producers introduced higher strength cements and the problem was reduced. Given the intangible nature of measuring sustainability in cement products there is a need for reliable standards. Unlike performance metrics, such as a strength or durability, the CO₂ footprint of a cement product will generally remain utterly intangible for most end-users. The effects of CO₂ emissions are continually analysed and debated, but the negative climate effects of cement products are more akin to someone else’s house flooding on the other side of the world 50 years later, than one’s own house falling down a decade later due to using the wrong strength cement. So, some form of trustworthy enforcement for sustainability standards is crucial. Standards may represent ‘boring’ bureaucratic red tape at its most officious but we need them. In India and elsewhere though, the debate on enforcement continues.

India: The state government of Uttar Pradesh has granted approval to three planned grinding plant projects with a total value of US$115m. The Hindustan Times newspaper has reported that Kanodia Cement ’s Amethi grinding plant will cost US$39.6m, Eco Plus Cement Industries’ Prayagraj grinding plant will cost US$38.6m and Eco Plus Cement Industries’ Mirzapur grinding plant will cost US$37.1m.

India: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has warned producers to avoid the use of objective product descriptions which may subsequently be proven as false claims. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the advice follows an internal circular of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution detailing plans for a tightening of standards around the use of objective terms such a ‘corrosion resistant,’ ‘weather proof’ and ‘damp proof’ by cement producers.

India: Ramco Cement has increased its stake in Lynks Logistics to 69% following its acquisition of a 23% stake in the company for US$273,000. The group previously invested US$700 in a 46% stake on 27 January 2020.

India: The Odisha State Level Single Window Clearance Authority (SLSWCA) has approved two cement and slag grinding plant projects in Odisha. It has granted JSW Cement permission for an upgrade to its upcoming 1.2Mt/yr Kalinga Nagar, Odisha slag cement grinding plant that will increase the finished plant’s capacity to 2.4Mt/yr at an additional investment cost of US$359,000. JSW Cement restarted work on the facility, which will grind Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS), in September 2018 after suspending the project due to leasing issues in 2016.

Sagar Cements subsidiary Jajpur Cements has also received clearance from the SLSWCA for the construction of a 1.5Mt/yr grinding plant on the site of the existing 0.5Mt/yr Jajpur Cements grinding plant in the Kalinga Nagar Industrial Complex in Jajpur District, Odisha. The project, valued by the company at US$44m, is scheduled for completion in March 2021. Sagar Cements acquired Jajpur Cements on 7 May 2019 for US$16m.

India: GM Iron & Steel Company Limited has published plans for the construction of a 0.4Mt/yr slag cement grinding plant in Dhenkanal, Odisha. United News of India has reported that the plant is part of an upcoming construction materials complex, including a 46MW captive power plant, that will cost US$82.7m, according to the company.

India: Shree Cement has signed a sponsorship deal with East Bengal Kolkata, one of two Kolkata, West Bengal-based football teams that compete in the I-League, the top flight of Indian football. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the company has promised to let the club retain its ‘iconic red-and-yellow jersey’ and crest.