Displaying items by tag: India

India: Holcim has agreed to sell its Indian business to industry, energy and ports conglomerate Adani Group for US$6.37bn. The assets consist of a 63% stake in Ambuja Cement, which in turn owns 50% of ACC, and a 4.5% direct stake in ACC.

ACC and Ambuja Cement employ 10,700 people and operate 31 cement plants in India. The deal will make Adani Group India’s second-largest cement producer.

Chair Gautam Adani said "With Holcim's global leadership in sustainability, we are acquiring some of the most efficient building materials operations in India, powered with clean technologies like heat recovery systems. We recognise that Ambuja and ACC operations are energy intensive and therefore, when combined with our renewable power generation capabilities, we gain a big head start in the decarbonisation journey that is a must for Indian industry."

Holcim says that its focus is now on expanding its solutions and products business. Reuters News has reported that the group plans to put the proceeds of the assets’ sale towards lower-carbon acquisitions. Its Indian operations contributed 26% of group CO₂ emissions.

CEO Jan Jenisch said "We will always make cement, but we will decarbonise cement.” He added “We are happy to build up other segments like building solutions and products."

India: Chettinad Cement has ordered a MVR 5600 R-6 type mill for raw meal grinding and a MVR 5300 C-6 type mill for grinding composite cements from Germany-based Gebr. Pfeiffer for a new production line at its integrated Kallur plant in Karnataka. The supplier says that the MVR 5600 R-6 type mill is the first of its kind provided with six rollers. The order was placed in April 2022 and the contract has since been activated with the receipt of down-payment and a letter of credit.

The core components of the MVR mills as well as the 5810 kW gearbox will be supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer SE from Europe. Foundation parts, housings and other components will be manufactured in India and delivered to the customer under responsibility of its subsidiary Gebr. Pfeiffer (India). The office of Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) in Noida, near New Delhi, will also support the end customer in plant design, procure most of the grinding plant machinery such as filters, fans, hot gas generators, the fly ash handling and conveying aggregates, and will be on site with personnel for quality control of the customer's site fabrication as well as supervision of erection and commissioning.

India: Dalmia Bharat sold 22.2Mt of cement in its 2022 financial year, up by 7.2% year-on-year from 20.7Mt in the 2021 financial year. During the year, Dalmia Bharat recorded earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$314m, down by 11% year-on-year from US$356m in the 2021 year. The producer says that it is 'on track' to achieve a capacity of 48.5Mt/yr by the end of the 2023 financial year.

Speaking about the company's fourth-quarter 2022 financial year performance, managing director and chief executive officer Mahendra Singhi said "Through proactive cost containment measures, our teams have successfully mitigated the adverse inflationary impact and delivered one of the lowest total cost per ton of cement alongside a volume growth in-line with the industry. The recent strong recovery in demand and prices across all our operating regions is highly encouraging." Singhi continued "While the margins may continue to remain under pressure, we are undertaking proactive measures to retain our cost leadership and deliver sustainable earnings growth."

India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) plans to invest US$38.9m in an upgrade to 2.5Mt/yr Belagavi cement plant. The work will consist of a capacity expansion and the installation of a new 9MW solar power plant at the facility. The latter is expected to halve the plant's grid electricity consumption. When commissioned in March 2024, the expanded plant will directly and indirectly employ 700 additional people.

India: UltraTech Cement has taken legal advice for its planned bid for Holcim's Indian business and says that it will volunteer to divest 15Mt/yr-worth of cement assets in order to accelerate the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approval process which would follow on from the acceptance of any offer. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that UltraTech Cement has filed five long form merger notifications for acquisitions of this type since 2013. These included its purchases of Binani Cement and Century Cement, and of Jaypee Group's Gujarati cement assets.

The Financial Express newspaper has reported that fellow contender Adani Group has offered 'more than' US$10bn for the assets, while JSW Group plans to offer US$7bn. BusinessLine Online News has reported that a fourth company, steel producer ArcelorMittal, has also held initial talks with Holcim over the assets.

In considering possible competition issues arising under any future deal, the CCI will factor in planned and upcoming cement capacity. In Gujarat, where Holcim India subsidiaries ACC and Ambuja Cements operate 6.8Mt/yr-worth of capacity, Adani Group plans to build a new 10Mt/yr cement plant at Lakhpat.

India: Visaka Industries has commissioned a new line at its Raebareli asbestos cement roofing sheets plant. Indiainfoline News Service has reported that the line has a capacity of 100,000t/yr.

Germany: Beumer has announced its acquisition of conveying systems supplier FAM Group. The group says that the two companies complement each other ‘ideally.’ FAM Group employs 750 people in Germany, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China and India, as well as representatives elsewhere. Beumer says that the company’s ‘leading technology’ for transporting and processing minerals fits well with its own portfolio.

India: Krishna Mohan Nendraganti has resigned as the chair and director of Sri Chakra Cement. He cited personal reasons for the departure.

India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Denmark-based FLSmidth to collaborate in the research and development of sustainable solutions for cement manufacturing. The agreement has been arranged under the ‘Green Strategic Partnership’ initiatives between Denmark and India that cover energy and climate change.

Under the MOU both companies will cooperate on a range of areas such as substituting conventional energy supplies with renewable sources and working towards CO₂ emissions abatement. Both companies have committed to contributing research and development towards eventually building an industrial scale production plant where the new concepts can be further tested.

Mahendra Singhi, the managing director and chief executive officer of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) said, “In alignment with the ambitious net zero vision of our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji and given the strength and stature of our respective organisations, this association will provide futuristic solutions to the cement and concrete industry to emerge clean and green.” He added that India and Dalmia Cement in particular were keen to develop a roadmap for the implementation of Industry 4.0 with totally decarbonised cement plants and a ‘lighthouse’ cement plant.

India: The Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) India has released a report entitled ‘Blended Cement – Green, Durable & Sustainable’ to promote the advantages of different types of blended cement over Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC). The report was released by Anil Agrawal, Additional Secretary Department for Promotion of Industry, and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry at an online event hosted by the Indian branch of the Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA).

“Blended Cement is the top priority and will play a key role in decarbonising the infrastructure segment. I am happy to see that the global cement and concrete industry has taken the lead, and they have come up with a roadmap. Now the Indian cement sector is developing an India specific detailed roadmap for the cement and concrete industry to achieve the net-zero CO₂ concrete by 2050 in a time-bound manner,” said Agrawal.

The report is a collation of the information about blended cement and its advantages. It highlights the performance improvement possible through this replacement, making blended cement an attractive means to achieve sustainable infrastructure development. It also showcases the benefits of different blended types of cement over OPC based on hydration, microstructure and permeability, rheology and workability, strength development, shrinkage (chemical, autogenous, and drying) and cracks, leaching, alkali-aggregate reactivity, sulphate attack, reinforcement corrosion, long-term durability of construction and usage in preparation of high strength concrete.