Displaying items by tag: India
India: A new Inter-Ministerial Task Force (IMTF) has been constituted to undertake a comprehensive review of the existing coal resources and to consider feasibility for rationalisation of linkages.
The major recommendations of the IMTF include acceptance of the recommendations of Coal India Limited (CIL) to rationalise existing coal resources. CIL has received 31 applications for rationalisation, including eight from captive power plants, out of which it recommended rationalisation in seven cases. There were two applications from cement plants.
"The approved recommendations of the IMTF were sent to CIL," said Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal. "CIL and the coal companies have implemented the recommendations pertaining to rationalisation of coal resources to captive power plants, sponge iron and cement plants." With regard to the rationalisation of resources of power utilities, the IMTF's recommendations are all inter-linked and could be implemented only with the consent of all the consumers. However, the consumers concerned did not agree to the revised arrangement.
The government has also expedited environment and forest clearances and land acquisition processes to improve Indian coal production. According to Goyal, India does have adequate coal resources to meet demand. Steps have been taken by CIL and its subsidiaries to augment production, including capacity addition from new projects and the use of mass production technologies. As per official data, the total estimated quantum of coal resources in India is 301.56Bnt. Some 12.53Bnt of coal has been extracted between 1950 and 2013-2014, with 566Mt of that in 2013-2014 alone.
Vicat buys out Vicat Sagar in India
16 July 2014India: Vicat Group has purchased Sagar Cements' stake in Vicat Sagar Cement for US$72m, subject to customary conditions precedents. After this transaction, Vicat will own 100% of Vicat Sagar Cement. Together with the share purchase, the two groups will untie all their ownership links.
Vicat Sagar Cement operates a cement plant in North Karnataka with a cement production capacity of 3Mt/yr. The plant includes its own captive power plant and access to the rail network. Vicat's India operations, comprising Bharathi Cement and Vicat Sagar Cement, include two cement plants with a total production capacity of 8Mt/yr.
In 2013 Vicat reported sales of US$210m in India, a rise of 12.7% year-on-year. In the first quarter of 2014, sales in India rose by 27.2%.
OCL’s Bengal Cement Works goes on stream
15 July 2014India: OCL India, an associate company of Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd, has invested US$102m in the Bengal Cement Works plant in Paschim Medinipur Distict, West Bengal State.
Puneet Dalmia, director of OCL India, said that US$83.1m had already been spent on the project. According to Dalmia, construction of the 2Mt/yr capacity plant began in 2012 and had recently been completed. This was OCL's largest project outside Odisha State.
"This plant marks the initiation of the company's investment cycle in West Bengal,'' said Dalmia. OCL already has two cement plants at Cuttack and Rajgangpur in Odisha. The Bengal Cements Works will be the anchor investor at the Godapiasal Industrial Park.
Brazil: The leaders of the rapidly growing BRIC economy countries, which include Brazil, Russia, India, China and now South Africa, will launch their own development bank at a summit in Brazil in 14-18 July 2014. The BRIC nations are also working on proposals to set up a 'mini International Monetary Fund (IMF),' according to the Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov.
The plan for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa to set up a bank to finance infrastructure projects began in 2012 and the group agreed on the project's outline in 2013 after seeing investors divert money from emerging economies, hurting their currencies. Disagreements over funding, management and where to locate the headquarters of the new entity held up progress, but Siluanov said that the leaders themselves would decide whether it should be based in Shanghai or Delhi when they meet in Fortaleza, Brazil in 14-18 July 2014.
The New Development Bank will be able to start lending in 2016. It will focus chiefly on infrastructure projects and will be available to other members of the United Nations. The five nations will put up an initial US$2bn each in financing with a further US$40bn in guarantees. The financing will eventually build up to US$100bn. Siluanov added that the five leaders would also sign a blueprint agreement on the group's other signature project, a US$100bn fund to steady the currency markets.
"We have reached an agreement that, in the current conditions of capital volatility, it is important for our countries to have this buffer in addition to the IMF," said Siluanov. The mini IMF would act as an emergency fund for members facing currency devaluation or which were hit by sudden currency flight. China will contribute US$41bn, while Brazil, India and Russia will each give US$18bn and South Africa US$5bn.
India: Reliance Infrastructure Ltd (R-Infra), part of Reliance Group, has named M S Mehta as chief executive officer (CEO) with effect from 7 July 2014. He will take over as CEO from Lalit Jalan, who held the portfolio for more than seven years.
Mehta was the Group CEO of Vedanta Resources Plc until recently, having held the position for five years. Prior to that, Mehta was the CEO of Hindustan Zinc Ltd. Mehta is a mechanical engineer and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
R-Infra is an infrastructure company developing projects, through various special purpose vehicles, in sectors such as roads, metro rail and cement. R-Infra also promoted Jalan as director (corporate strategy and affairs), saying that Jalan will steer future growth initiatives.
India: Chettinad Cement Corporation Ltd (CCCL) has recently purchased 20.58% of the shares of Anjani Portland Cement Ltd from shareholders for a price of US$1.03/share. CCCL announced its plans to acquire Anjani Portland Cement in March 2014. The purchase forms part of the company's strategy to increase its presence in the Andhra Pradesh market. Anjani Portland operates two plants in the Nalgonda district, Andhra Pradesh, with a production capacity of 1.2Mt/yr and plans are also in place for the construction of a greenfield cement plant in Karnataka.
India: Sagar Cements plans to sell its 47% stake in the joint venture company Vicat Sagar Cement to Vicat Group. Sagar Cement's board will consider the sale of its investment in the plant located at Chatrasal, Karnataka, at a meeting on 15 July 2014. Sagar Cements had invested US$14.3m in the first phase of the plant with 2.75Mt/yr capacity. Commercial production commenced in January 2013. France's Vicat is willing to acquire the stake to make Vicat Sagar Cement a completely-owned entity. Vicat is hoping to complete the entire transaction by September 2014.
India: CK Birla group's subsidiary, HIL Limited, has announced that it has sold 100,000t of Charminar brand fibre cement roofing sheets in May 2014.
"This is the highest ever achieved by any brand globally," said HIL's managing director, Abhaya Shankar. He added that Charminar has been a household name, synonymous with asbestos roofing solutions across India, for nearly six decades. HIL has eight manufacturing plants, an installed capacity of 1Mt/yr and a 20% share in the US$669m market of asbestos roofing products in India.
Formerly known as Hyderabad Industries Limited, HIL launched Charminar asbestos roofing products 66 years ago. Shankar said the brand had attained market leadership some time in the late 1950s and retained that position thereafter. As a part of brand-building efforts, HIL has deployed campaign vans, relied on wall paintings and actively participated in village marts and other such events in rural areas. According to Shankar, the brand building involved three aspects: a strong relationship with distributors, a pan-Indian presence and consistent policies in respect of trade. HIL has also made use of a good supply chain and a robust system to get customer feedback. HIL spends about 2.5-3% of its revenues on brand building.
UltraTech Cement announces resignation of director
02 July 2014India: UltraTech Cement has announced that M Damodaran, the company's Independent Director, has resigned from the board with effect from 20 June 2014. Damodaran has cited increasing work load and time commitments as well as the need to reduce his board level engagements as the reasons for stepping down.
India: Fosroc Chemicals has set up a new US$1m plant in Uluberia, Howrah district in West Bengal. The plant is intended initially to manufacture 20,000t/yr of cement and concrete additives.
"The plant, constructed on 5261m2 of privately owned land on lease, will initially produce cement and concrete reinforcing liquid chemicals. Within a year, we will add powder chemicals manufacturing with another US$1m investment," said R Sai Krishnan, Vice-President, Fosroc Chemicals (India).
The Fosroc Indian arm of the international construction chemicals company wants to increase its turnover to US$67m in 2014. Cement, concrete and grouting chemicals are its main sales drivers in the country. In India it has a 15% market share in construction and industrial chemicals. Around 70% of its turnover comes from business projects solutions and the rest from retail.