Displaying items by tag: India Cements

India: Two pipe bombs have been found by police at India Cements plant at Sankarnagar, Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. The explosives were discovered after the plant manager was asked for a ransom of around US$70,000, according to the Indo-Asian News Service. Police suspect that the bombs were left at the site by former employees whose contracts were terminated due to coronavirus-related restrictions. However, terrorist activity is also being considered. The cement producer said that no one was hurt in the incident and production at the site continues uninterrupted.

India: The state government of Telangana has renewed The India Cements’ mining licence for two sites in Guntur district until 2037. These are the Pondugula and Pulipadu mines, which supply the company’s Vishnupuram cement plant in Nalgonda district. The Times of India has reported that the producer first received its licence for the mines in 2000 and applied for the recent extension a decade later.

India: The India Cements recorded full-year consolidated net sales of US$619m in the 2021 financial year, down by 13% year-on-year from US$712m. Cement sales volumes fell by 19% to 8.9Mt from 11Mt, which it blamed on production overcapacity in the south of the country. Its profit after taxes, minority interests and share of profit of associates was US$28.6m, more than triple the figure for the 2020 financial year of US$7.34m. The cement producer warned that, despite an economic recovery following the first wave of coronavirus, it expected an uncertain outlook with the current second wave of the epidemic.

India: Prism Johnson’s full-year consolidated net sales fell by 7% year-on-year to US$752m in the 2021 financial year from US$806m in the 2020 financial year. The group’s profit before tax increased more than doubled to US$21.4m from US$8.5m. Cement sales revenue grew slightly to US$354m.

India: The India Cement’s consolidated nine-month net sales for the period which ended on 31 December 2020 were US$416m, down by 24% year-on-year from US$550m, in the corresponding period of 2019. Its sales volumes of cement fell by 29% to 5.9Mt from 8.4Mt. However, its net profit more than doubled to US$21.5m from US$8.3m. The cement producer said that the construction industry started to recover from September 2020 following coronavirus-related lockdowns earlier in the year. Earnings and profits grew in the reporting period in part due to reduced production costs.

India: Cement producers in southern India have joined together to form the South Indian Cement Manufacturers’ Association (SICMA). United News of India has reported that the association aims to serve as an intermediary between producers and federal and state governments. In this, it says that it will help to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘affordable housing for all’ and ‘infrastructure for future.’ The India Cements vice-chair and managing director Narayanaswami Srinivasan will head the new organisation, supported by Barathi Cement’s director Ravinder Reddy as vice-president and Penna Cement’s director Krishna Srivastava as secretary.

SICMA alleges that the construction industry has exaggerated the effects of rising cement prices on its costs. In so doing, the association says, it has deprived the public of the housing the government had planned. It added that, with around 30% of India’s limestone reserves situated in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana alone, the South has the potential to become a cement hub for development across India, as well as for export.

India: The India Cements recorded a profit of US$2.27m in the three months to 30 June 2020, down by 77% year-on-year from US$9.66m in the corresponding quarter of 2019. Its sales fell by 48% to US$102m from US$197m, due to the effects of the coronavirus lockdown during the quarter. It noted that direct cement sales to consumers (non-trade sales) rose to 67% from 52%, and said that it would extend its successful “cash and carry” business model developed for non-trade sales during the partial coronavirus lockdown to all cement sales. The India Cements predicts a rise in cement demand in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana of 75% to 3.5Mt in the second half of 2020 from 2.0Mt in the first half.

India: The India Cements recorded a profit of US$4.70m in the fiscal year ending 31 March 2020, down by 49% year-on-year from US$9.18m in the 2019 fiscal year. Sales fell by 10% to US$669m from US$744m. The company attributed the fall in revenue partly to the suspension of operations in the fourth quarter following the beginning of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown in late March 2020.

India: Retail investor Radhakishan Damani has announced plans to acquire a majority stake in The India Cements. The deal is subject to the approval of competition authorities.

Under the current circumstances it’s not surprising to see how much Indian cement production fell in April 2020. Like many other countries, its lockdown measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak suppressed industrial output. Yet seeing an 86% year-on-year fall in the world’s second largest producer is shocking. Cement production declined to 4.1Mt from 29.2Mt. Further data shows, as part of the Indian government’s eight core industries, that steel and cement production suffered the most. Coal, crude oil, natural gas, petroleum refinery products, fertilisers and electricity generation all fell by far less.

Graph 1: Change in Indian cement production year-on-year (%). Source: Office of the Economic Adviser.

By comparison in China monthly cement output only fell around 30% at the peak of its outbreak. The difference is that China implemented a graduated lockdown nationally, with the toughest measures applied in Wuhan, the place the outbreak was first identified. As we reported in April 2020 demand for cement in Wuhan had fallen by around 80% at the time its lockdown ended. Production and demand are different, but India’s experience feels similar except that it’s on a national scale. The last time the country had a dip in cement production recently was in late 2016 when the government introduced its demonetisation measures and dented cement production growth rate (and national productivity) in the process.

UltraTech Cement, Orient Cement, Ambuja Cement, India Cement, Dalmia Bharat, JK Lakshmi Cement, Shree Cement and others all suspended operations to varying degrees in the first phase of the lockdown in late March 2020. Operations of industrial plants in rural areas was then cleared to restart in mid-April 2020, although subject to local permissions and social distancing rules, as the country’s lockdown zones took shape. All of this started to show in company results towards the end of March 2020 as sales started to be hit. The worst is yet to filter through to balance sheets.

March 2020 was a particularly bad time for the government to shut down cement plants because it is normally the month when annual construction work peaks. Cement production usually hits a high around the same time. The monsoon season then follows, reducing demand, giving producers a poor time to restart business. Credit ratings agency Care Ratings has forecast that capacity utilisation will drop to 45% in the 2020 – 2021 financial year. This follows a rate of 65 – 70% over the last six years with the exception of 2019- 2020, which was dragged down to 61% due to lockdown effects. On top of this labour issues are also expected to be a major issue to the sector returning to normality. The mass movement of workers back to their homes made world-wide news as India started its lockdown. Now they have to move back and Care Ratings thinks this is unlikely to complete until after the monsoon season, by September 2020. Hence, it doesn’t expect a partial recovery until the autumn, nor a full recovery until January 2021 at the earliest.

Not everybody is quite as gloomy though. HM Bangur, the managing director at Shree Cement recently told the Business Standard newspaper that he was expecting a rebound following the resumption of production in May 2020. He also reported a capacity utilisation rate of 60% at his company, higher than Care Rating’s prediction above, and he noted a difference between demand in rural areas and smaller cities (higher) compared to bigger cities (lower).

India is now pushing forward with plans to further unlock its containment measures to focus on the economy. However, daily reported news cases of coronavirus surpassed 8000 for the first time on Sunday 31 May 2020. How well its more relaxed lockdown rules will work won’t be seen for a few weeks. While this plays out we’ll end with quote from HM Bangur that will resonate with cement producers everywhere: “sales are imperative.”