Displaying items by tag: India
Shree Cement gets extension for mega cement plant
24 June 2014India: The Karnataka State government has granted an extension of two years to Shree Cement to establish its mega-cement plant at Kodla-Benakanalli village, Karnataka State.
Shree Cement was given permission to establish a 3Mt/yr cement plant at an investment of US$241m in January 2010, apart from establishing a captive 150MW power plant. It purchased 5.26km2 of land directly from farmers to set up the plant and mine limestone.
While Shree Cement was able to get environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests in September 2012, its application with the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board was pending. The company had also applied for permission from the Water Resources Department to draw 1500kL/day of water from the Kagina River.
CCI imposes US$66.2m penalty on Shree Cement
19 June 2014India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed the penalty on Shree Cement while issuing the final order in a case against cement manufacturers and their trade body, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA).
"The Commission has imposed a penalty on Shree Cement Ltd at the rate of half of its profits for the years 2009 - 2010 and 2010 – 2011, aggregating to US$66.2m," said the CCI. The CCI added that it had, "Found 11 cement manufacturers, including Shree Cement and the CMA, in contravention of the provisions of the Competition Act 2002, which deal with anti-competitive agreements, including cartels." It asked Shree Cement to refrain from such anti-competitive activities in the future.
With regard to the other companies, the CCI said that as they were fined earlier, it was not imposing any penalty on them again for the same period of contravention. In June 2012 the CCI imposed a US$1.05bn fine on 11 leading cement makers, including ACC, Ambuja Cements, UltraTech, India Cements, Binani Cement, JK Cement, Madras Cement, Lafarge and Jaypee Cement. The industry body CMA was also fined US$121,717.
India: The board of directors of ACC Ltd has appointed Harish Badami as CEO and managing director (MD) designate with effect from 1 August 2014. Badami will assume responsibility as CEO and MD of the company for a period of five years. He will succeed Kuldip Kaura.
"With the Jamul cement plant (in Chhattisgarh State) expansion coming on stream in 2015, ACC is now well poised to serve the Indian market which is on the threshold of rapid growth," said Kaura.
"At this juncture, with the economy showing positive signs, I look forward to the exciting opportunity to participate in its growth," said Badami.
India: UltraTech Cement has received the approval of the Bombay and Ahmedabad High Courts to acquire Jaypee Cement's plant in Gujarat.
UltraTech has already received the approval of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), shareholders and creditors to buy the 4.8Mt/yr cement plant with a 57.5MW coal-fired thermal power plant, limestone reserves for over 90 years and a captive jetty at Sewagram, Maharashtra State, for US$639m. As part of the deal, UltraTech will absorb a debt of US$614m of Jaypee Cement and issue UltraTech shares worth US$25.2m to Jaypee Associates.
Cooper takes charge at HeidelbergCement India
11 June 2014India: Jamshed Naval Cooper, HeidelbergCement India's director of sales and marketing, has taken over as the chief operating officer from 4 June 2014. Cementrum I BV of the Netherlands, the holding company of HeidelbergCement India, proposed the appointment. The position is subject to the approval of the board of directors.
Cooper succeeds Ashish Guha, who had resigned from the position of chief executive and managing director, but acceded to continue in office until the appointment of a successor at the request of the board of directors.
Shree Cement to set up grinding plant in Odisha
11 June 2014India: Shree Cement plans to set up a 3Mt/yr cement grinding plant at Odapada in Dhenkanal District, Odisha State for about US$76.6m. The location will enable the cement maker to utilise the fly ash produced at the power plants owned by Lanco Badband Power, GMR Kamalanga, Navabharat Ventures and Bhushan Steel based in the region. The plant will be built on an area covering 0.24km2 of land which will be allotted by the district administration on Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation's request.
Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board orders Jaypee Cement to halt over-production
11 June 2014India: The Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (HPSPCB) has ordered Jaypee Cement to halt its over-production immediately, according to local media. In order to ensure that the directive is followed the board has asked the electricity provider to limit the power supply that is provided to the cement plant.
India: UltraTech Cement Ltd is in talks to buy cement assets from Jaiprakash Associates Ltd. The two companies are in discussions about projects, including Jaiprakash's Rewa cement plant in central India, which has a 7Mt/yr cement production capacity.
Selling additional assets would help Jaiprakash to reduce its debt, which jumped more than four-fold in the five years through March 2014 to US$10.3bn. In 2013 UltraTech agreed to buy a Jaiprakash cement unit based in Gujarat State.
Jaiprakash is also looking for buyers for cement assets in Himachal Pradesh State, where it owns two plants with a combined production capacity of 3.5Mt/yr. Jaiprakash sold its 74% stake in Bokaro Jaypee Cement Ltd, a joint venture with the Steel Authority of India Ltd, to Dalmia Bharat Ltd for US$194m in March 2014.
After its recent divestments, Jaiprakash has a cement production capacity of 26.4Mt/yr, according to a company presentation in May 2014. The company plans to sell assets valued at about US$1.35bn by March 2015.
India: It has been reported that the Adhunik Cement factory in Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya State has been working without clearance from the Ministry of Forests and Environment ever since its inception in 2008. Not only is the plant working without clearance, there have been serious violations of the environment, according to local media.
In a report sent to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, dated 18 January 2013, the then scientist who was appointed by the ministry to check into the clearance, S C Katiyar, found major violations within the plant and passed the information to the Central Ministry. The project consisted of a 20MW captive power plant and a 1.5Mt/yr cement plant. Even though the report was submitted to the Ministry in 2013, the plant is still in operation.
"We believe that none of the cement plants have valid clearances from the Environment and Forest Department," said Agnes Kharshiing, the president of the Civil Society Women's Organisation (CSWO). "They have been flouting rules and destroying the place without any care for the region. This is a serious violation and shows what we have been hinting at – that the plants are not cleared for operation. The scientist has made a fair report and our Pollution Board is also violating norms when they did not close down these cement plants with major violations."
The CSWO has demanded the immediate closure of all the cement plants of the region and a proper check to be done on the validity of their papers before operations are allowed to continue. Kharshiing also alleged that "The government has been working hand in glove with them and is now even trying to provide them land for reforestation. This is not fair and is making life for the people of the region difficult. We demand that the clearance certificates be checked for all of the companies working in Jaintia Hills, because we believe none of them are working through legal norms."
Update - 11 June 2014: Adhunik Cement have responded to the original source of this news story in the Meghalaya Times and asked Global Cement to publish it.
10 June 2014
Subject: Article in your publication
Dear sir,
This is in context of an article published in the Meghalaya Times datelined Tura, June 7th 2014 titled 'Adhunik Cement Factory Working Without Environmental Clearance'. The article alleges that the factory has "been working without environmental clearance... ever since its inception". And "...there have been serious violations of the environment..."
1. We would like to submit that the Adhunik Cement factory at Jaintia Hills has been in compliance of all clearances. It was granted environmental clearance vide Environment Clearance Letter No. J-110111/109/2007-IA-II (I) dated June 19th 2008.
2. The MoEFF nominee referred to in the article, Dr SC Katiyar had pointed out certain areas of improvement, these have been met. Regular reports on compliance status are being formally submitted, per protocol to the concerned authorities including the MoEF.
We are a mature, responsible corporate citizen, sensitive to the environment. We adhere to best-in-class business practices and high thresholds of environmental and safety standards. We are disappointed that a publication of your stature did no consider checking out perspective. In the interest of factual accuracy to present a correct perspective, we required you to publish this letter.
Yours sincerely,
LN Mishara
Adhunik Cement Limited
India: According to the latest data from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), the utilisation of hazardous waste as an alternative fuel and raw material (AFR) in cement kilns has increased by a factor of 35 since 2009 – 2010 from 15,693t/yr to 543,569t/yr in 2013 - 2014.
This follows the GPCB's measures to strike a balance between the disposal of toxic hazardous wastes, environmental protection and economic interests. Safe disposal of toxic hazardous waste posed a major challenge before the state pollution regulator took up disposal through cement kilns under controlled conditions.
In 2011 Gujarat State generated 109Bnt/yr of incinerable waste, 1107Bnt/yr of land-fillable waste and 577Bnt/yr of recyclable hazardous waste. These included plastic waste, spent carbon, tar, mixed waste liquid, pharmaceutical waste, tyre chips, agricultural waste, solid waste, chemical gypsum, iron sludge, copper slag and fly ash.
The GPCB encouraged major industrial clusters and cement plants to provide waste collection centres and pre-processing facilities for hazardous waste for co-processing. "It is a recovery of energy and material from waste," said Hardik Shah, member secretary of the GPCB. "The challenging task was to convince the top management of cement plants." The GPCB facilitated cement makers with access to its data on the waste generated in the State via Extended Green Node (XGN) software, which ensured the supply of suitable wastes.
"This involves some additional investment, but in the long run it repays as there are savings on fuel costs," said an Ambuja Cement spokesperson. Ambuja has invested US$16.7m to set up a pre-processing facility of solid/semi-solid waste at its Ambujanagar plant in Junagadh District, Gujarat State.
Similarly, Sanghi Industries is in the trial phase for using hazardous waste. "From a legal standpoint, we need to get clearance from the GPCB for co-processing any new waste material in our plant," said Alok Sanghi, director of Sanghi. "We have submitted the results of the trials conducted and are awaiting clearance from them." Sanghi has been doing trials for last 18 months.
"The use of alternative fuel in Indian cement industries has been limited," said GPCB's Shah. "The thermal substitution rate (TSR) in the cement industry is less than 1% in India as against 10% in Japan and 40% in European nations. The GPCB has set a target of three years to achieve a TSR of 10% by using AFR."