Displaying items by tag: Kerala

India: State-owned producer Malabar Cements will increase production following reduced production over the last three months. The state government of Kerala has intervened following price rises, according to the Hindu newspaper. Malabar Cement sells around 6 - 8% of the cement sold in the state. The state government is also considering regulating the price of cement.

India: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has ordered Malabar Cements plant at Walayar, Palakkad in Kerala to comply with emissions standards or face closure. The cement producer has been given seven days to comply from the 31 December 2018, according to the Times of India newspaper. Malabar Cements was originally granted extra time, to 10 May 2018, to meet the new standards. The CPCB later declared that no cement producer would be able to flout the rules past 31 August 2018. It also intends to fine the company around US$570/day from the end of August 2018 for breaking the standards.

India: Penna Cements has started operating its terminal and bagging plant at Cochin Port in Kochi, Kerala. The first vessel to visit the unit, Penna Suraksha, delivered a consignment of 25,000t from Krishnapatnam Port, according to the Hindu newspaper. The terminal had an investment of US$8m.

The new terminal has a cement capacity of 0.3Mt/yr. It is intended to serve the local market in Kerala. It joins terminals run by Zuari Cement, Ambuja Cement and UltraTech Cement that also operate at the port.

The Penna Suraksha is reportedly the largest self-discharging vessel in Asia. As well as carrying a load of 25,000t of cement it can discharge up to 1000t/hr of cement. It uses a ship unloader supplied by Germany’s IBAU Hamburg.

India: Ramco Cements’ earnings and profits fell in the six months to the end of September 2018 as fuel and raw material costs rose. Its net profit after tax fell by 26% year-on-year to US$32.6m from US$44.2m in the same period in September 2017. Revenue rose by 15% to US$329m and sales volumes of cement rose by 18% to 50.8Mt. The cement producer said that sales in Kerala had been adversely affected by bad weather in the most recent quarter.

India: Penna Cements is close to starting operations at its new terminal at Cochin Port in Kochi, Kerala. The 0.8Mt/yr unit at Ernakulam wharf includes a bagging plant and it has an investment of just under US$9m, according to the Hindu newspaper. Once it opens it will join Zuari Cement, Ambuja Cement and UltraTech Cement, which also operate from the port.

India: The Kerala High Court is investigating how files have disappeared from its premises regarding a corruption case into Malabar Cement. The files were part of a 2015 petition, seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into alleged instances of corruption in the cement producer, according to the Press Trust of India. Justice B Sudheendra Kumar described the situation as ‘alarming.’

In early 2017 the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, a corruption body in the state of Kerala, arrested Prakash Joseph, a legal officer at Malabar Cements, in relation to a loss of US$0.4m. Previous to this in mid-2016 the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested K Padmakumar, the managing director of Malabar Cements, on charges of corruption and irregularity.

India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has dropped a complaint against JSW Cement concerning denial of supply of cement. The complaint was made by Kerala-based Ramachandran V, an authorised dealer of JSW Cement, according to the Economic Times newspaper. It was alleged that the cement producer had abused its market position by denying the dealer supply of cement in breach of an agreement. In an order dated in late February 2018 the CCI ruled that JSW Cement did not hold a dominant position in the local market. Subsequently the complaint of abuse of a dominant position was not relevant.