Displaying items by tag: India
India: The credit ratings agency ICRA has forecast that cement demand is likely to increase by 5% year-on-year in the 2017 – 2018 financial year due to increases in infrastructure and residential housing. In a report on the Indian cement sector it said that demand for cement fell by 1.2% to 280Mt in the 2016 – 2017 period, according to the Hindu newspaper. It added that the government’s demonetisation policy had decreased sales volumes by 9% between November 2016 and March 2017 as construction activity fell. However, in July 2016 ICRA failed to anticipate the negative effects of demonetisation predicting that cement demand would grow by 6% in the 2016 – 2017. Since then sales picked up by 17% in April 2017 leading to the current optimistic outlook.
India: JSW Group is considering plans to build a 200MW solar plant next to its cement grinding plant at Salboni in West Bengal. The owner of JSW Cement is considering plans for land it owns at the site, according to the Press Trust of India. The group says it is in advanced talks with foreign contractors to build the US$124m project. However, if the proposal fails it will build a 36MW thermal power plant instead for use by the cement plant.
India: UltraTech Cement plans to build a 3.5Mt/yr cement plant with an investment of US$400m at Dhar in Madhya Pradesh. Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla informed the producer’s annual general meeting that the project is scheduled to start commercial production in the fourth quarter of its 2019 financial year, according to the Press Trust of India. The company also intends to spend a further US$404m towards capacity de-bottlenecking projects, regulatory requirements, plant infrastructure and routine maintenance at its plants.
The cement producer has reported its financial results for the first quarter of its financial year that ended on 30 June 2017. Its net sales rose by 6% year-on-year to US$1.08bn from US$1.02bn in the same period in 2016. Its profit after tax rose by 15% to US$139m from US$121m. The results included those of the cement plants of Jaiprakash Associates and Jaypee Cement Corporation that UltraTech acquired in late June 2017. The cement producer reported that its costs had risen during the quarter due to rising energy and logistic costs due to ballooning fuel prices.
India: ACC’s sales have risen as its Jamul cement plant in Chhattisgarh has ramped-up production increasing its presence in the east of the country. Its sales rose by 12.7% year-on-year to US$1bn in the first half of 2017 from US$888m in the same period in 2016. Its cement sales volumes rose by 6.9% to 13.3Mt from 12.5Mt. Its net profit after tax rose by 12.5% to US$83m from US$74m. The subsidiary of LafargeHolcim also launched two new brands – ACC Suraksha and ACC HPC – in the preceding quarter.
India: The Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) says that demand for cement is likely to grow in the second half of the Indian financial year due to the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) and increased infrastructure spending. The cement industry is also expected to benefit from a 30% reduction in logistic costs due to simplified state border checks, according to the Press Trust of India. The CMA’s forecast follows a fall in growth for the cement industry in the previous financial year.
India: The Cement Corporation of India (CCI) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the owner of the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to build a 2Mt/yr slag and fly ash cement plant. RINL will provide the blast furnace slag and fly ash for the project. The plant is expected to cost US$23m and it will take 15 months once the deal is finalised.
India: JSW Cement has released its first commercial product from its 2.4Mt/yr Salboni plant in West Bengal, 18 months after construction work began at the site. The first load of cement was sent on a truck to a client in nearby Tarapith. JSW Cement’s director Biswadip Gupta said that it was one of the fastest greenfield cement plant projects in India in recent years. “We have not lost a single man-day during the construction of the project,” he added.
However, those that have been forced from their land to allow for the construction of the plant remain unhappy that the project has gone ahead, with the secretary of the JSW Landlosers’ Welfare Association Pariskar Mahato stating that they had not even received an invitation to the inauguration event. He added, “There is resentment among land losers. We should get jobs in the project, but the management is recruiting people from outside.”
Bhutan: A broken gearbox at a coal mill at the Penden Cement Authority plant in Gomtu has reduced its production. The plant has had intermittent mechanical issues with the gearbox in one of its two coal grinding mills since April 2017 leading to a breakdown in May 2017, according to the Kuensel newspaper. Then in June 2017 a similar problem occurred with the main drive gear in its other coal mill. The plant has been producing cement using imported clinker since then although it shut down completely for several days in late June 2017.
So far the cement producer has been unable to procure replacement parts. It has also been reported that the company has had difficulty importing clinker from India following the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Timken to buy India’s ABC Bearings
07 July 2017India: Timken India, a subsidiary of the US-based Timken Company, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ABC Bearings, a manufacturer of tapered, cylindrical and spherical roller bearings and slewing rings. The deal has been structured as a merger of ABC Bearings into Timken India. It is expected to take at least six months to complete as clearances from various authorities are sought.
"Timken is a leader in the growing Indian bearing market, and the acquisition of ABC Bearings will expand our capacity, our customer base and our locally produced product breadth," said Richard G Kyle, Timken president and chief executive officer.
India: The Delhi High Court has rejected an appeal by Dalmia Bharat in a coal import deal with Glencore that went wrong. The cement producer will now be required to pay US$4.3m in damages and US$0.27m in interest, according to the DNA newspaper. Dalmia Cement, part of Dalmia Bharat Group, originally arranged a deal to import coal in multiple consignments. However it later refused to accept some of the shipments citing poor quality. Glencore then won damages at an arbitration tribunal that ruled that Dalmia had breached its contract.