Displaying items by tag: India

India: HeidelbergCement India has clarified that it is ‘unaware’ of reported discussions between its parent company Heidelberg Materials and JSW Cement over the possible transfer of the former’s Indian assets, Reuters has reported.

Heidelberg Materials owns 13.4Mt/yr-worth of cement capacity in India, of which HeidelbergCement India comprises 6.3Mt (47%).

India: Heidelberg Materials has entered preliminary discussions over the possible acquisition of its Indian business by JSW Cement. The business commands 13.4Mt/yr in cement production capacity, 7.1Mt/yr (53%) of it via Zuari Cement and 6.3Mt (47%) via HeidelbergCement India.

ET Now News has reported that JSW Cement made an unsolicited offer for the assets. The company aims to raise its capacity by 46% to 60Mt/yr by the end of 2028, in order to be among the top five cement producers in India.

India: JSW Cement is conducting a pilot project in the use of electric vehicles for cement transportation. The producer has introduced five Murugappa electric cement trucks into its fleet in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It expects these to eliminate 150t/yr of CO₂ emissions from its logistics operations.

Daijiworld News has reported that CEO Nilesh Narwekar said “The pilot project is an important milestone in making our future much greener and more purposeful.” He added “Based on the success of these pilot trials, we will scale-up the integration of these trucks across our cement operations in India.”

India: UltraTech Cement sold 26.7Mt of cement during the second quarter of the 2024 financial year (1 July – 30 September 2023). This corresponds to year-on-year growth of 16% from 23.1Mt in the second quarter of the previous financial year. Sales in India accounted for 25.7Mt (96%) of total volumes, while overseas sales accounted for 1.18Mt (4%).

UltraTech Cement has a cement capacity of 138Mt/yr across its 23 cement plants and 29 grinding units.

India: A 25-year-old man died after becoming trapped in a belt conveyor at a cement plant in Madhya Pradesh’s Satna District. The Free Press Journal newspaper has reported that the man had been working alone in the plant’s packing plant at the time of the disaster.

Multiple producers, including Birla Corporation, Century Cement, Jaypee Cements and Prism Cement, operate integrated cement plants in Satna.

India: Anjani Portland Cement has appointed Rajesh Kumar Dhoot as its chief financial officer. He succeeds RS Ramanjaneyulu following his resignation. Dhoot is a chartered accountant with over 25 years of professional experience in the cement, sugar, pipe and textile sectors. He has worked in the cement industry for over 15 years, most recently with Chettinad Cement since 2014. Prior to this he held positions with UltraTech Cement from 2006 to 2014.

Bangladesh/India: The completion of an upgrade project to Chhatak Cement’s plant has been thrown into doubt due to uncertainty about securing limestone from India. The plant still needs to build a new 17km ropeway conveyor and this has been delayed due to failure to obtain permission on the Indian side of the border, according to the Daily Star newspaper. It is also facing problems procuring limestone in India due to on-going legal proceedings on environmental grounds between exporters in Meghalaya and the government. The Supreme Court of India granted permission for exports in 2022 but the case is still pending. In addition, plans to install a gas line from Sylhet to the plant has not started yet either.

The state-owned cement producer is run by the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC). It originally announced in 2016 that it was spending over US$100m to build a new 1500t/day dry production line at the plant to replace an old wet production line. Although the old line originally had a production capacity of 233,000t/yr, it had fallen to around half of this. However, despite the construction of new silos and other equipment at the site, the unit has not been operational since early 2020. The new line was originally planned to start operation in 2020 but this was delayed until 2023. The BCIC has now proposed that completion of the project be extended to mid-2025.

India: The India Cements expects to commission the upgraded grinding unit at its Sankar Nagar cement plant in Tamil Nadu later in September 2023. Hindu BusinessLine News has reported that the producer is undertaking the upgrade in order to increase efficiency and lower the plant’s operating costs. The producer has hired US-based Boston Consulting Group to ascertain other possible improvements to three of its plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. At its Chilamkur cement plant in Andhra Pradesh, it is installing a waste heat recovery (WHR) system, scheduled for delivery in early 2024. FLSmidth and ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions are both reportedly conducting ‘detailed studies’ for possible future projects for The India Cements.

India: Ratings agency Crisil has forecast all-Indian cement consumption growth of 11% year-on-year to 440Mt during the current financial year, which ends on 31 March 2024. Crisil attributed this to a 51% year-on-year rise in infrastructure spending, to US$6.75bn throughout the year. Press Trust of India News has reported that infrastructure projects currently account for 30% of all cement consumption.

India: UltraTech Cement has bought a 29.8 hectare parcel of land in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizianagaram District from The India Cements. The Times of India newspaper has reported the value of the sale as US$8.44m. The India Cements’ vice chair and managing director Narayanaswami Srinivasan said that the company is looking for ways to monetise its assets amid on-going liquidity issues.

The India Cements’ sales of cement and clinker fell by 4.3% quarter-on-quarter to 2.66Mt in the three months to 30 June 2023 from 2.78Mt in the three months to 31 April 2023. It noted high fossil fuel prices and local overcapacity in the South Indian cement sector.