Displaying items by tag: India
Production begins at two new HeidelbergCement India plants
18 February 2013India: HeidelbergCement India has successfully completed and commissioned two projects in Damoh district in central India, with production starting today at both facilities. It has increased production at its Narsingarh, Madhya Pradesh, plant from 1.2Mt/yr to 3.1Mt/yr. In Imlai it has taken its cement capacity from 1Mt/yr to 2Mt/yr.
HeidelbergCement India said that the expanded capacity will enable the company to increase its market share in central India, where the company's brand 'mycem' is already a premium brand.
India: Heidelberg Cement India has received approval to set up a waste heat recovery (WHR) power plant at its clinker plant at Narsingarh, Damoh District in Madhya Pradesh. The proposed plant will produce approximately 12.15MW of power from the available waste heat of pyro-processing system of all three lines at the unit. The project cost is estimated to be in the range of US$26.9m to US$27.8m and it is expected to be operational in January 2015.
ACC’s net profit down by 46%
13 February 2013ACC's sales rose by around 2% year-on-year to US$505.6m as demand improved towards the end of the quarter. The company's earnings before interest, tax, deprecitaion and amortisation (EBITDA) were down to US$59.6m compared to US$83.1m in 2011.
Cost pressures are likely to remain high for ACC due to higher railway freight rates and interest costs. Going ahead, margins may improve on the back of price hike announced recently by cement companies.
Jaiprakash quarterly net profit slumps by 64% to US$20.6m
12 February 2013India: Jaiprakash Associates has reported a more than 64% decline in standalone net profit at US$20.6m for its third quarter, which ended on 31 December 2012, as its interest burden increased by over 20%. For comparison, the Noida-based company had a net profit of US$57.4m in the third quarter of the 2011-2012 fiscal year.
Its net sales, however, were up by 15.3% to US$629.5m during the quarter compared to US$545.9m in the October-December period of the 2012 fiscal year. Revenues from the cement segment were up by nearly 7% to US$273.2m.
The company's total expenditure of US$521.8m amounted to nearly 83% of its net sales during the quarter. Its interest outgoings increased by 20.7% to US$98.7m. Its other income, mainly interest on deposits, also declined by nearly 36% to US$15.8m, impacting the company's financial results for the quarter.
Cement industry safety in India
06 February 2013A stark reminder came this week of the thankfully rare but potential risks of working in the cement industry. Five deaths were reported at Ambuja Cement's Bhatapara cement plant in India on 31 January 2013.
According to a press release Ambuja issued, the steel construction supporting a fly ash hopper located on top of a building, and connected to the cement mill, collapsed at the Bhatapara plant. Further details in local press reports added that about 200t of fly ash fell from a height of 15m. Five labourers and plant employees working at the site were buried under the debris and subsequently died. Four officials from the company have since been arrested and the plant closed while investigations are conducted.
Previously in January 2013 burn injuries were reported as another Ambuja cement plant, this time at Darlaghat. Eight workers received burns after a blast from a boiler unit.
However, despite these incidents the safety figures for Ambuja Cement and the other major Indian producers are high. In Ambuja Cement's 2011 sustainability report it recorded that its lost time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) was 1.04 for total employees and supervised workers. Its LTIFR has been dropping steadily since 2008, when it was 3.18.
This compares to other major Indian cement producers as follows. UltraTech Cement reported that its LTIFR for permanent employees was 0.82 in 2011-2012, a consistent drop year by year since 2008-2009. ACC reported that its LTIFR for its own and subcontracted employees was 0.31 in 2011. Shree Cement reported a LTIFR of 0.91 in 2010-2011 for employees and contractors. For international comparison the Mineral Products Association set a LTIFR target of 1.79 or lower for 2014 in the UK. Lafarge's global LTIFR in 2011 was 0.63 and Holcim's was 1.6.
An Ambuja's plant in Rajasthan picked up two national awards from the Government of India for Safety Performance in mid 2012. One was for first place for outstanding performance in Industrial Safety based on 'Lowest Average Frequent Rate'. The second was a runners-up prize for the category 'Accident Free Year'. Lafarge India, UltraTech, ACC and the other major producers all hold similar accolades. Sadly, any safety record is only as good as the shift that has just finished.
Four officials arrested at Ambuja Cement following deadly accident
06 February 2013India: Four officials at Ambuja Cement have been arrested following an accident with five fatalities at the company's cement plant at Rawan in Chhattisgarh.
"Vice President of Ambuja Cement Sanjay Kumar Badopadhyay, DGM Production K Venkat Stayanarayan Murty, DGM Mechanical Rajendra Singh Kurmi and GM electrical Sanjay Kumar Mishra have been arrested in connection to the Ambuja cement factory (incident)," said a police officer to the Press Trust of India. They were booked under IPC sections 287 (negligence with machinery), 337 (endangering life or personal safety) and 304A (causing death by negligence).
Five workers were killed on 31 January 2013 when a fly ash container crashed into the mixing unit of the plant at Rawan village. A case has been registered against Ambuja Cement management and the labour department has ordered a halt to factory operations until an investigation into the incident has been completed.
Chief Minister Raman Singh has directed the factory management to provide compensation of US$18,800 to the kin of each victim and a job to one member of their families. A six-member panel headed by additional collector of Balodabazar district has also been formed to conduct magisterial probe into the incident, which has been asked to submit its report in one week.
Jaiprakash Associates ‘unable’ to pay US$18.8m power plant fine
06 February 2013India: Major Indian cement producer Jaiprakash Associates has informed the Supreme Court of India that it is unable to pay a US$18.8m fine imposed by the Himachal Pradesh High Court for setting up a captive thermal power plant without gaining the required environmental clearance.
The Jaypee group firm said that it is in 'great difficulty' and can't arrange funds to pay its second instalment of US$4.7m that is due on 31 March 2013. However, it said it had paid the first instalment of the same amount. A bench headed by chief justice Altamas Kabir agreed for an early hearing on 12 March 2013 even though the environment ministry and the state government opposed the plea, saying that there is no way for Jaiprakash Associates to avoid the US$18.8m fine.
On 4 May 2012 the High Court ordered the Jaiprakash Associates to dismantle its 60MW captive power plant within three months. It allowed the 1.75Mt/yr cement plant in Solan to stay. In November 2012 Jaiprakash Associates reported that its net profit for the six months to 30 September 2012 had dropped by nearly 40% to US$50.1m from US$81.3 in the same period in 2011.
Indian producer records loss in three months to December 2012
25 January 2013India: Prism Cement has reported a loss of US$10.1m for the quarter ending 31 December 2012, due to poor demand for the building material, high power and raw material costs. The firm, which has also has interests ready- mix-concrete and tiles as well as cement, had made a US$4.3m net profit in the October-December quarter of 2011. Prism's net sales fell as expenses rose.
"Poor demand, weak government spending on infrastructure kept prices of cement under pressure in the quarter," said Prism in a presentation to investors. "Coupled with higher power,freight and raw material costs, realisations have been adversely impacted. The markets are expected to improve and stabilise during the last quarter of the financial year."
Vicat starts dispatching cement from Gulbarga plant
23 January 2013India: Vicat Group, the French multinational cement producer, has announced the first line of commercial dispatch from its 2.75Mt/yr greenfield cement plant in Chatrasala village, Gulbarga district, Karnataka. Cement from the plant will be marketed under the brand name of Bharathi Cement and targeted for domestic consumption in north Andhra Pradesh, north Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The Gulbarga plant is a joint-venture between Vicat and Sagar Cements. Vicat already has a joint venture, Bharathi Cement, in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, with a 5Mt/yr capacity which has been in operation since 2009. With the start of production at Gulbarga, Vicat's cement capacity in India has risen to 7.75Mt/yr, making it amongst the top cement producers in the south of India.
Vicat Group has close to 7400 employees working in three core divisions, cement, concrete and aggregates and other products and services, which generated consolidated sales of Euro2.27bn in 2011. The group operates in 11 countries: France, Switzerland, Italy, USA, Turkey, Egypt, Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, Kazakhstan and India.
UltraTech profit down by 3%
23 January 2013India: UltraTech Cement, an Aditya Birla Group company, has reported a net profit of US$112m for the last three months of 2012, a drop of 3% compared to US$115m in the same period in 2011. The company blamed subdued demand and higher costs caused by increases in railway freight and diesel prices. Net sales for the quarter rose by 6% to US$904m from US$850m.
During the quarter, UltraTech reported that imported coal cost around US$100/t but that the benefit of this low price was partly offset by the depreciation in the Indian Rupee. New clinker plants at Chhattisgarh and Karnataka are expected to be operational by early 2013-2014 and will add 9.2Mt/yr to UltraTech's capacity. Once completed UltraTech's total capacity will reach 62Mt/yr.
In its outlook, the company said that the surplus scenario in the industry is likely to continue over the next three years. "Input costs are likely to increase in line with general inflation with margins remaining range bound,'' the company said.