Displaying items by tag: JK Cement

India: JK Cement has commenced production and dispatch of cement from an expansion project at its cement plant in Mangrol, Chittorgarh, Rajasthan. The plant, which started production in 2001 at a rate of 0.75Mt/yr, had a capacity of 1Mt/yr prior to the upgrade. The company has plans to eventually increase the plant's capacity to 3Mt/yr in the future.

One of the largest cement makers in northern India, JK Cement is also a major producer of white cement. It exports to South Africa, Nigeria, Singapore, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, UAE and Nepal.

India: The director of JK Cement, Shri Jagendra Swarup, passed away on 30 July 2014. His replacement is expected to be announced shortly.

India: JK Cement has appointed Sushila Devi Singhania as an additional director with effect from 26 July 2014.

India: 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: According to local media, the Jammu and Kashmir State government has ordered an enquiry of the managing director of JK Cement regarding the alleged embezzlement in the purchase of polypropylene bags. According to the allegations, US$156,857 was to be shared by JK Cement's managing director and a few of his trusted lieutenants.

JK Cement had placed an order to purchase cement bags from a factory outside of the state at exorbitant rates. The company had earlier ordered 3 million bags at a price of US$0.156/bag (US$469,052 total), of which 33% was to be supplied by Gopinath Enterprises Ahmedabad. The remaining supply was yet to be determined. The managing director of JK Cement later allegedly approved the purchase of 4 million bags from Bihar Raffia at a rate of US$0.18/bag (US$720,000 total). The former supplier, Gopinath Enterprises, was asked to stop the supply.

India: JK Cement has announced that the Board of Directors has appointed Paul Hugentobler as an additional director in the Board, to hold office until the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting. Previous to the appointment, Hugentobler served as an advisor to Holcim between 1 January 2014 to February 2014. Between 1999 – 2000 he was the CEO at Siam City Cement and between 1980 – 1994 Hugentobler was a project manager at Holcim Group Support.

India: Indian cement companies are on the lookout for overseas mines to secure supplies of gypsum for cement production.

Domestic gypsum supplies are limited, which is forcing Indian cement makers to look to acquire gypsum mines in countries like Thailand, Oman and Iran. Indian cement producers are also looking into synthetic gypsum production.

The domestic gypsum deficit has led to increased dependence on imports and synthetic gypsum to meet cement demand. Manufacturing one tonne of cement requires 4 - 5% of gypsum as a raw material.

In India, gypsum reserves are found in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. About 90% of the total Indian production of gypsum comes from western and north-western Rajasthan. At present, usable gypsum reserves in India amount to 140 - 150Mt, of which around 125Mt is available to the cement industry. These numbers are for Rajasthan and Gujarat, as reserves in other states are unusable. This supply will be enough to support the cement industry for seven or eight years.

Vinod Juneja, managing director of Binani Cement, said that the shortage of domestic gypsum has forced the company to consider the possibility of overseas mine acquisitions, but the high cost of such acquisitions is a deterrent. "We have looked at gypsum mines for acquisition in the Middle East, South Africa and Iran, but the prices are too high so it does not prove to be viable since the returns are not high," he said. "Gypsum is a very important raw material for cement production and we don't want to depend totally on imported gypsum," Juneja added.

Some others, like JK Cement, are yet to decide how to tackle the gypsum shortage. "Gypsum is in shortage and we are working out a solution for it," said Madhavkrishna Singhania, special executive at JK Cement. "There are two options; either we acquire a mine overseas or produce synthetic gypsum, so right now we are contemplating these options and in a year or two we will have to figure out what needs to be done," he added.

The most common solution to tackle the shortage is importing gypsum. However, imports attract a 2.5% duty, thus increasing costs for an industry that has also been facing other increased costs in an economic downturn. High transport, logistics and raw material costs have hit margins across the cement sector.

India: JK Cement has appointed Shri Jagendra Swarup as an additional director on the board of the company until its next annual general meeting.

India: The Competition Appellate Tribunal (COMPACT) has ordered cement producers to pay 10% of a US$1.15bn fine imposed on them by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for a price-fixing cartel. The tribunal asked 11 Indian cement producers to pay the fine within 30 days otherwise their appeal against the fine will be dismissed.

COMPAT had reserved its order over a batch of petitions filed by various cement producers and the Cement Manufacturer's Association (CMA) on 18 March 2013 after hearing them on an interim plea. In the petitions, the cement producers had challenged US$1.15bn penalty imposed on them by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and a US$133,000 fine imposed on the CMA. The cement companies charged with cartel behaviour include Lafarge India, India Cement, JP Associates, Binani Cement, Ambuja Cement, Madras Cement and J K Cement.

The CCI had found cement producers were in violation of the provisions of the Competition Act, 2002 which deals with anti-competitive agreements, including cartels. The order was passed following probe by CCI Director General (Investigation) on a complaint filed by Builders Association.