Displaying items by tag: India

India: The government of the state of Odisha will invest US$1.25bn in infrastructure development, including construction of several industrial facilities. These will include a 1.0Mt/yr integrated plant owned by JSW Cement subsidiary Shiva Cement and a total of 4.0Mt/yr grinding capacity in new Shiva Cement and Shree Cement plants. The projects will source their cement from Odisha’s existing installed capacity of 7.3Mt/yr, consisting of 3.8Mt/yr integrated and 3.5Mt/yr grinding capacity at plants owned and operated by Dalmia Bharat’s OCC India, Toshali Cement, UltraTech Cement and Lafarge Holcim’s ACC Cement.

India: Czech Republic-based Wikov has announced the conclusion of an agreement with Premium Transmission with the aim of bringing its gearboxes to the Indian market. The agreement entails Premium Transmission assembling Wikov gearboxes to install in projects across the country.

India: JSW Cement has revised its planned expansion to its 14Mt/yr total installed capacity to 39Mt/yr before 1 January 2023, an increase of 5Mt/yr compared to its initial target of 34Mt/yr by 2020. The figure includes JSW’s 54% subsidiary Shiva Cement’s new 1Mt/yr integrated and 1Mt/yr grinding plant, valued at a total of US$112m. Parth Jindal, JSW Cement managing director, said that the figure had been revised upward because Shiva Cement had become self-sufficient in clinker production, freeing the group’s east Indian cement production from ‘volatile import costs.’

Economic Times has reported that Shiva Cement is set to bring its limestone reserves to 100Mt with the acquisition of the Khatkurbahal mine. The company sources its granulated blast furnace slag from the Odisha steel industry. Production of JSW Cement’s flagship product, JSW Portland Slag Cement (PSC), releases CO₂ at a rate of 325kg/Mt compared to between 760kg/Mt and 800kg/Mt for typical Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC).

India: The Union Council of India has approved a US$1.4bn distress fund to help developers finish partially completed residential developments. Business Today has suggested that the financing, which prioritises affordable and middle-income housing projects, will bolster demand for cement producers. The launch of the scheme follows India’s decision not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership on 4 November 2019, for which it stated reasons of a trade deficit with 11 of the 15 other signatories and the rejection of its proposed three-tier structure for phasing out tariffs.

India: Birla Corporation and its subsidiary RCCPL have acquired a 26% stake in AMPSolar Clean Power. The cement producer plans to buy solar power for its Raebareli cement grinding plants and its Kundanganj cement grinding plant.

India: HeidelbergCement India is targeting expansion options to increase its production capacity to 20Mt/yr from 12.5Mt/yr. Managing director Jamshed Cooper said that the company is looking at companies in the range of 5 – 10Mt/yr in order to avoid the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) process, according to the Indo-Asian News Service. The cement producer is also planning to build a 22MW waste heat recovery unit at its Zuari plant in Yerraguntla, Andhra Pradesh at a cost of US$28m. Debottlenecking initiatives are also being conducted at a cost of US$7m to increase overall production capacity by 0.5Mt/yr when completed in 2021.

The group operates two subsidiaries locally: HeidelbergCement India and Zuari Cement. HeidelbergCement India serves the central markets and Zuari Cement, a former Italcementi subsidiary, focuses on the south of the country.

India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) and Dalmia Refractories plan to merge their refractory businesses. The subsidiaries of Dalmia Bharat have approved schemes of arrangement to consolidate under a single company known as Dalmia OCL. Dalmia OCL in turn will be held by a holding company known as Dalmia Bharat Refractories. The intention of the merger process is to create a single refractory company of ‘significant’ size, to simplify the corporate structure and to achieve economies of scale.

India: The leading global supplier of cement kiln refractories, has produced its first test batch of magnesia carbon bricks (MCBs) for use in cement kilns at its 18,000Mt/yr Tangi plant near Cuttack in the state of Odisha. The company acquired the fully-equipped plant in August 2019 for Euro5.5m and has said production will be supported by a ‘new state-of-the-art world-class research and development centre currently under construction in Bhiwadi’ in serving the needs of the regional cement industry.

India: JK Cement has revealed its rebranded JK Wall Putty, which will be known as WallMaxX. JK Cement operates 10.9Mt/yr of cement capacity across India. It launched its JK Wall Putty, the main constituent of which is its white cement, in 2002 to give a highly water-resistant finish to plaster that prevents seepage and flaking.

Bangladesh: UltraTech Cement Middle East Investments (UCMEI) has announced that it has entered into a binding agreement by which it will sell its entire shareholding in Emirates Cement Bangladesh and Emirates Power Company to HeidelbergCement Bangladesh.

Under the terms of the agreement, UCMEI will divest its entire shareholding at an enterprise value of US$29.5m. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals in compliance with the laws of Bangladesh.