Displaying items by tag: Maharashtra

India: Dalmia Bharat, through its subsidiaries, has announced a US$400m investment to expand its cement capacity in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The company will build a 3.6Mt/yr clinker unit and a 3Mt/yr grinding unit at its Belgaum plant in Karnataka, alongside a new 3Mt/yr greenfield grinding plant in Pune, Maharashtra. The expansion will be funded through debt and internal accruals. It is expected to increase Dalmia Bharat's total installed capacity to 55.5Mt/yr, including an ongoing 2.9Mt expansion in Assam and Bihar. The new units are scheduled for commissioning by the fourth quarter of the 2027 financial year.

CEO Puneet Dalmia said "This investment is a significant step in our Phase II expansion strategy, bringing us closer to strengthening our position as a pan-India player and reaching our goal of 75Mt/yr capacity by the 2028 financial year. The increase in our production capacity is primarily to meet the growing infrastructure demand in western India."

India: Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone has opened a 2Mt/yr grinding plant in Guna, Madhya Pradesh, Mint News has reported. Together with a neighbouring firearms plant, the Adani Group subsidiary invested US$417m in the project.

India: Kaushalya Logistics (KLL) has launched a new cement depot in Ahmednagar, Maharashtra, enhancing its logistics services for Adani Cement. The depot will handle approximately 120,000t/yr of cement, supporting ACC and Ambuja Cement brands.

KLL has also introduced a new vertical in freight forwarding under full truck load services, commencing operations with VMS Equipment, a group company of construction equipment manufacturer ACE.

Managing director Uddhav Poddar said “We are thrilled to start this new association with Adani group with a new depot in Ahmednagar. Our collaboration with Adani Cement showcases our cement logistics capabilities, and our entry into the freight forwarding market marks a pivotal step in our growth strategy.”

Adani Group’s subsidiary Ambuja Cements signed a deal this week to buy Penna Cement for US$1.25bn. The agreement adds 14Mt/yr of cement production capacity to the group with a focus in the south of India. The acquisition is a big step towards the group’s target of reaching a capacity of 140Mt/yr by 2028. Ajay Kapur, the head of Ambuja Cements, also singled out the advantage the company hopes to gain from taking control of Penna Cement’s terminals saying that they would “prove to be a gamechanger by giving access to the eastern and southern parts of peninsular India.” The move is expected to increase the group’s market share in India by 2%, and by 8% in South India.

Penna Cement operates four integrated plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with a capacity of 7Mt/yr. Two of these units also include waste heat recovery installations and one has a captive power plant. It runs two grinding plants in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra with a capacity of 3Mt/yr. Another integrated plant is being built at Jodhpur in Rajasthan and a grinding plant at Krishnapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Finally, the company owns four bulk cement terminals at Kolkata, Gopalpur, Karaikal and Kochi in India, one at Colombo in Sri Lanka and it also owns a 25,000t cement carrier.

Adani Group’s march towards that target of 140Mt/yr by 2028 started off in mid-2022 when it purchased Ambuja Cements and ACC from Holcim. This gave it a starting capacity of 68Mt/yr in the cement sector. Various smaller additions followed including new plants at Ametha and Dahej and the acquisitions of Asian Cement and Concrete, MyHome Industries and Sanghi Industries. The latter company was the biggest of these purchases. Once the in-progress projects from Penna Cement are built, Adani Group should have a capacity of 93Mt/yr. Another 20Mt/yr is reportedly at various stages of execution. The remaining 27Mt/yr is described as being ‘blueprint ready.’

Generally, the local financial press has been in favour of the transaction agreeing with the geographic advantages of Adani Group increasing its presence in the southern states. The benefits of the high number of railway sidings at Penna Cement’s plants were also commented upon as a means for Ambuja Cements to reduce its costs per tonne of cement. The logistics benefit from the port terminals is also expected by Adani Group’s chief financial officer to reduce the group’s logistics costs with an impact expected within the next year. However, it has been reported that Penna Cement’s operating performance had been weaker in the last financial year due to low sales volumes, poor operational efficiency and high coal costs. A takeover by Adani Group could certainly fix the latter two issues. Yet, it has also been reported that competition in the cement markets in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana is up, due to a mismatch between supply and demand. So, improving Penna Cement’s capacity utilisation in these regions might be harder to solve than simply being absorbed into Adani Group.

India’s two largest cement producers both have plans in motion to mount up production capacity by the end of the decade in what has been dubbed ‘the battle of the billionaires.’ The market leader is UltraTech Cement and it has shown reluctance to cede ground to the cement newcomer Adani Group. The former company’s current target is to make it to just under 190Mt/yr by 2027. It said it had a capacity of 152Mt/yr in May 2024. It is ahead of Adani Group by this measure but there is still plenty of scope for surprises. Given the rivalry between the companies there is a regular stream of speculation about which of the smaller cement producers they might be about to buy at any given time. For example, in October 2023 HeidelbergCement India was rumoured to be courting offers from UltraTech Cement, Adani Group and JSW Cement. Last week, Adani Group was reportedly interested in buying either Saurashtra Cement, the cement business of Jaiprakash Associates, Vadraj Cement or… Penna Cement. Occasionally the rumours are true after all. UltraTech Cement remains in first place for now but the situation may change.

India: UltraTech Cement has concluded an agreement to acquire The India Cements’ 1.1Mt/yr Parli grinding unit in Maharashtra for US$37.8m. The plant will subsequently figure in a US$60.5m growth drive by the group, aimed at adding 3Mt/yr in new cement capacity in Maharashtra. Current on-going expansions and acquisitions are set to raise the Aditya Birla subsidiary’s capacity to 198Mt/yr.

India: Shree Cement has ventured into the ready-mix concrete (RMC) sector by acquiring five plants in Mumbai from StarCrete. The company disclosed the purchase on 12 March 2024, with the plants having a combined capacity of 422m³/hr. The deal, valued at US$4.04m, marks a strategic expansion for Shree Cement.

Neeraj Akhoury, Managing Director of Shree Cement, said “The strategic foray into the RMC segment is a step ahead in our vision to become a multi-product company centred around a core cement business. The RMC segment is expected to witness healthy growth, driven by government initiatives in large infrastructure projects and a booming housing construction sector.”

India: UltraTech Cement has deployed five electric clinker trucks at its Dhar cement plant in Madhya Pradesh. Asian News International has reported that the trucks will convey clinker to the producer’s Dhule grinding plant in Maharashtra. The company expects the trucks to reduce its CO₂ emissions by 680t/yr.

UltraTech Cement is committed to electrifying 500 vehicles across its operations by the end of June 2025.

India: Ambuja Cements has completed its acquisition of a 54% stake in Sanghi Industries for an enterprise value of US$622m. It has funded the purchase through internal accruals. Following the acquisition, Ambuja Cement’s parent company, Adani Group, now has a cement capacity of 75Mt/yr, up by 9% from 69Mt/yr. It has also gained 1Bnt of limestone reserves.

Ambuja Cements said that the transaction would allow it to accelerate its coastal strategy in the west of the country with the aim of reaching a regional cement production capacity of 15Mt/yr. It intends to expand the captive port at the Sanghipuram cement plant to accommodate larger vessels to target markets in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala by 2026. Debottlenecking, fuel mix changes and solar and wind projects are also being considering at the site.

India: Village leaders from Maharashtra’s Chandrapur District began a hunger strike on 17 November 2023 with the stated aim of ensuring that UltraTech Cement continues to deliver on its commitments to its host communities. Specifically, the demonstration sought to make the producer distribute funding for roadbuilding projects across 12 villages surrounding its 3.6Mt/yr Awarpur cement plant. The Hitavada newspaper has reported that UltraTech Cement agreed to the strikers’ demands on 19 November 2023. In addition to the funding, the company will give preferential treatment to industrial training institute (ITI) and polytechnic students lodging at the selected villages when allocating apprenticeships and training places and make some of its land available for community uses.

India: Birla Corporation plans to increase its cement production capacity to 25Mt/yr by the end of the 2026 financial year from 20Mt/yr at present. It intends to do this by upgrading its 3.9Mt/yr Mukutban plant in Maharashtra, installing a second grinding unit at Maihar in Madhya Pradesh as well as building new grinding plants, according to the Times of India newspaper.

Birla Corporation chair Harsh V Lodha said "With the commissioning of Mukutban, we have virtually ring-fenced our core market of Central India, which we can service seamlessly from our six plants, namely Maihar, Satna, Kundangunj, Raebareli, Chanderia and now, Mukutban. The strategic location of these plants and standardisation of product quality allows us to interchange source of supplies to maximise realisation and serviceability for our customers." He made the comments at the company’s annual general meeting.