Displaying items by tag: India
India: Vaishno Cement Company Ltd has appointed Sarita Agarwal as an independent non-executive director with effect from 27 March 2015.
Dalmia Cement starts trial production in Karnataka plant
31 March 2015India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has commenced trial production at its 2.5Mt/yr greenfield cement plant in Karnataka. When commissioned, the plant will take the group's capacity to 24Mt/yr. "Dalmia Cement, a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Ltd, has commenced trial production at its new cement plant in Belgaum, Karnataka on 23 March 2015," said Dalmia Cement in a statement.
Penna Cement plans grinding plant in Maharashtra
31 March 2015India: Penna Cement Industries plans to set up a 700,000t/yr capacity grinding plant in Daund, Pune, Maharashtra. The plant will be set up on 93,077m2 of land and is estimated to cost US$31.9m. Gannon Dunkerley Co will be the contractor and Walchandnagar Industries will be machinery supplier.
Koshal Cement abandons mini grinding plant in Odisha
31 March 2015India: Koshal Cement has abandoned a 45,000t/yr mini grinding plant in Nagaon, Bargarh, Odisha. The plant was intended to produce 50% Portland pozzolana cement (PPC) and 50% Portland slag cement (PSC) using a ball mill.
India: Trinetra Cement Ltd's shareholders have approved the amalgamation of Trinetra Cement, Trishul Concrete Products Ltd and India Cements. The plan was first announced in 2014. "The company wants to consolidate cement operations and the merger of Trinetra Cement Ltd and Trishul Concrete Products with India Cements will bring operations under one company," said N Srinivasan, vice chairman and managing director of India Cements.
JSW Cement puts Gulbarga plant on the back-burner
20 March 2015India: JSW Cement plans to shelve its plans to set up a 3Mt/yr clinker plant at Chittapur in Gulbarga temporarily as the company's short-term goal is to ensure that its Andhra Pradesh plant reaches full capacity, according to a company spokesperson.
In 2014 JSW Cement announced plans to pump around US$400 – 480m into its Gulbarga plant. JSW Cement currently runs three plants; the¬ 4.8Mt/yr Nandyal plant in Andhra Pradesh, the 0.7Mt/yr Vijayanagar plant in Karnataka and the 0.7Mt/yr Dolvi plant in Maharashtra. While its Vijayanagar and Dolvi plants are running at 100% capacity utilisation, its Nandyal plant is stuck at 50% capacity utilisation due to low cement demand.
"There is 50% capacity utilisation at our Nandyal plant. Since we already have around 2.5Mt/yr of unused capacity, we need to convert it into utilised capacity," said JSW Cement director and CEO Anil Kumar Pillai. "For that to happen, it will take another one to one and a half years. Until such time, there is no point in expanding," JSW Cement director and chief executive officer Anil Kumar Pillai told TOI. Pillai." He added the company will be firming up its plans to improve capacity as it has an internal target of producing 20Mt/yr by 2020."So we will be finalising our plans by September - October 2015. By that time we will have a picture of if we will be going ahead with Gulbarga or something else," said Pillai.
To reach its target of producing 20Mt/yr, JSW Cement is also open to taking the inorganic growth path and is evaluating various options, according to Pillai. He added that the company would prefer to acquire assets in the south of India.
Pillai said that, overall, the cement sector has seen no growth recently as the government has launched any big infrastructure expenditure. However, with some major announcements made in the Union budget towards pushing infrastructure growth, the second half of the next fiscal year could be a turning point for the cement industry.
Wonder Cement to double production
19 March 2015India: Rajasthan-based Wonder cement, part of the RK Marble Group, plans to double its cement production by the end of 2015. The company will increase the capacity of its cement plant in Chittorgarh, Rajasthan from 3.25Mt/yr to 6.75Mt/yr by investing US$256m in the project. The plant, which currently runs at full capacity, sells 180,000bags/day of cement.
India: UltraTech Cement has commissioned its third clinker line at Aditya Cement (AC), Shambhupura in Rajasthan. The plant, which has a 6000t/day kiln and a clinker capacity of 2Mt/yr, can use a wide variety of fuels.
Meanwhile, its greenfield grinding plant in Jhajjar, Haryana is likely to be commissioned in 2016. "With this commissioning, UltraTech Cement will further increase its capacity in the north region," said UltraTech in a statement. "Further, the new grinding plant coming up in Jhajjar will assist us in capturing the growing demand for cement in this region with timely and effective supplies to the customers."
Commercial coal mining to be allowed
16 March 2015India: In the first major step towards opening the coal mining sector, India's government will start allocating coal blocks to state governments for commercial mining. The move, which is expected to be undertaken in April 2015, will put an end to the 41-year-old monopoly over the commercial sale of coal.
The coal ministry will allot non-operational mines to state governments for commercial coal mining for end use in the iron, steel, cement and allied sectors. This will bring business and revenue to coal-rich states, which have so far only received royalties from private companies mining coal for captive use.
"Non-operational mines will be allotted to state governments to extract coal for commercial usage and market sale. States could then sell this coal to the utilities under their umbrella or any private company for various end uses, as specified in the ordinance," said a senior official. This is pursuant to an enabling provision on commercial mining and sale of coal in the coal ordinance (special provisions), 2014. The coal ministry will also issue guidelines for the appointment of mining development operators (MDOs) by states.
The coal ordinance has inserted section 3A in the Coal Mines Nationalisation Act to enable joint ventures by central and state governments and their companies and any other company, for mining operations in India 'in any form, either for own consumption, sale or for any other purpose,' in accordance with a licence granted by the state government concerned.
India: Jaypee Group is reportedly in talks with HeidelbergCement and JSW Cement to form a joint venture that will control the majority of its cement plants. The plan envisages a separate joint venture entity that will house around 20 – 22Mt/yr of Jaypee's operational plants in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The venture may exclude Jaypee's first cement plant in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, which has approximately 3Mt/yr of cement production capacity.