Displaying items by tag: Rajasthan

India: Shree Cement has secured mining rights for a limestone quarry spanning 912 hectares. The reserve has a capacity of 211Mt and is situated in Jaisalmer District, Rajasthan.

India: Wonder Cement’s managing director Kiran Patil led the inauguration of Line 5 at the Nimbahera plant in Rajasthan on 7 May 2025, according to a social media post by the producer. The project increased the producer’s clinker capacity by 2.8Mt/yr to 13.35Mt/yr and cement capacity by 2.5Mt/yr to 21.5Mt/yr. The company partnered with APBCO on the expansion, which also includes a 12MW waste heat recovery system to increase energy efficiency.

Consolidation in the Indian cement sector continued through December 2024. UltraTech Cement completed its acquisition of a larger stake in The India Cements late in the month. Then, this week, Nuvoco Vistas said that it was preparing to buy Vadraj Cement. Along similar lines, JK Lakshmi Cement also confirmed that it was moving ahead with the merger of its cement-related subsidiaries.

The UltraTech Cement deal was approved by its board of directors in July 2024 but it took until 24 December 2024 before it formally completed the purchase of an additional 33% stake in The India Cements. The deal was valued at around US$460m in mid-2024 by local press. UltraTech Cement now owns just under a 55% stake in the company and is its majority shareholder. Back in July 2024 UltraTech Cement said that The India Cements had a total production capacity of around 14.5Mt/yr of ordinary Portland cement (OPC). Just under 13Mt/yr of this is based in the south of the country, mostly in Tamil Nadu, and 1.5Mt/yr is in Rajasthan.

The Nuvoco Vistas announcement follows a bidding process to acquire Vadraj Cement through a corporate insolvency process. Key parts of the deal include taking control of Vadraj Cement’s 6Mt/yr grinding plant in Surat and its 3.5Mt/yr integrated plant in Kutch. Both plants are in Gujarat. The agreement also includes limestone mining rights in the state and a captive jetty near the Kutch plant. However, the expression of interest for the insolvency proceedings, published in March 2024, revealed that the company’s operations have been suspended for five years. The grinding plant and the jetty were described as ‘partially constructed.’ Nuvoco Vistas has not disclosed how much it had bid to pay for the company, although it was keener in its press release to state that the transaction would see it become the fifth largest cement producer in India. It says that its cement production capacity will rise to 31Mt/yr; 19Mt/yr of this in the east, 6Mt/yr in the north and 6Mt/yr in the west. Synergies are also hoped for when the new assets are combined with Nuvoco Vistas’ current plants at Nimbol and Chittorgarh in Rajasthan.

Compared to the previous two news stories, the JK Lakshmi Cement merger plan is on a smaller scale but it follows the same trend. The cement producer presented its corporate restructuring plan to its shareholders in July 2024. It wants to merge JK Lakshmi Cement, its main cement company, with Udaipur Cement, Hidrive and Hansdeep. JK Lakshmi Cement runs two integrated cement plants at Sirohi, Rajasthan, and Durg, Chattisgarh respectively. It also operates what it calls ‘split location grinding’ plants at Kalol and Surat in Gujarat, at Jhamri in Haryana and at Cuttack in Odisha. Udaipur Cement operates one integrated plant in Rajasthan, Hidrive owns land next to the group’s Surat unit and Hansdeep is a preferred bidder for limestone resources in Nagaur, Rajasthan. The group’s clinker and cement production capacities are 10Mt/yr and 16.4Mt/yr. Its rationale is to gain synergies from production, distribution and logistics, to simplify the corporate structure, to improve efficiency and to raise shareholder value. That last one might be particularly useful for a cement producer looking to expand or sell in the future.

Further mergers and acquisitions are expected to happen in 2025 but at a slower rate than in 2024. Part of the dynamic so far has been that the highest demand is in the east and the highest capacity is in the south. Many of the deals announced in 2024 focused on markets in the south of the country. By contrast, analysts quoted in the Economic Times at the start of 2025 anticipate that new transactions might start to move to other regions. Obvious potential targets include Jaiprakash Associates and Heidelberg Materials. The first company became insolvent in 2024 and is likely to be sold off. Rumours of a potential purchase of the second company by Adani Group in the autumn hit the local press in October 2024. Doubtless there are other less visible possibilities too if the price is right. Read Global Cement Weekly in 2025 to find out what happens.

India: Adani Group has announced a US$750m investment in Rajasthan, with US$375m allocated over the next five years to green energy, cement production and infrastructure development. The group plans to add four cement units, increasing its total capacity by 6Mt/yr, according to BusinessWorld magazine.

India: JK Cement plans to invest US$584m in its construction of a new cement plant in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. IM News has reported that the producer has already secured environmental clearance for the upcoming plant.

India: JSW Cement will establish its first cement plant in the north of the country at Nagaur, Rajasthan. The new site will begin with a capacity of 3.3Mt/yr, eventually expanding to a capacity of 15Mt/yr by 2026.

Managing director Parth Jindal posted on X "Extremely proud that JSW Cement is entering North India, today we have broken ground at our site in Nagaur, Rajasthan. A new beginning for JSW, one that will see us becoming a pan-Indian cement player by 2026.”

India: UltraTech Cement has increased its cement production capacity by 2.4Mt/yr through debottlenecking at integrated and grinding plants in Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal. Following the improvement exercise its total domestic capacity is 141Mt/yr and worldwide it is 146Mt/yr. The improvements were made at the Pali integrated plant in Rajasthan and grinding plants at Magdall in Gujarat, Sonar Bangla in West Bengal and Neem ka Thana in Rajasthan.

India: Wonder Cement says that it has completed the construction of its new Tulsigam grinding plant in Gujarat. The Economic Times newspaper has reported that the new grinding plant will integrate with Wonder Cement’s existing facilities, including the Nimbahera cement plant in Rajasthan, and grinding plants in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

The Tulsigam grinding plant will raise Wonder Cement’s capacity to 18Mt/yr, following the expansion of the Nimbahera cement plant to 11Mt/yr and the inauguration of the new Aligarh grinding plant in 2023.

Wonder Cement director Vivek Patni said "Each strategic move, including our new Tulsigam grinding unit, is aligned with our commitment to cater to India’s evolving infrastructural demands. We're poised for continued growth and are deeply committed to quality, innovation and societal impact."

India: Adani Group subsidiary Ambuja Cements plans to invest US$722m in renewable energy projects to help decarbonise its cement production. The producer has a renewable power capacity target of 1000MW, through solar and wind projects, by the end of the 2026 financial year. The proposals include a 600MW solar power project and 150MW wind power project in Gujarat, and a 250MW solar power project in Rajasthan. The company also plans to increase its waste heat recovery (WHR) capacity to 397MW by late 2028 from 103MW at present.

Ajay Kapur, the chief executive officer of Adani Group’s cement business, said "This strategic investment reaffirms our steadfast commitment to sustainable practices. We are not just aiming for a substantial increase in green power capacity but setting the stage for a transformative shift in the cement industry. They align not only with our growth trajectory but also with the national objective of decarbonisation and greener future and this helps us become competitive and sustainable."

Adani Group announced in mid-December 2023 that it was committed to investing US$100bn in the decade to the end of 2033 towards transitioning its operations to net zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.

India: Shree Cement inaugurated its new 4.2Mt/yr Nawalgarh cement plant in Rajasthan on 14 December 2023. The plant boasts an 11,500t/day kiln, which is among the largest in India, according to the company. Following the inauguration, Shree Cement’s installed production capacity now stands at 53.4Mt/yr.

Managing director Neeraj Akhoury said “In our pursuit to become an 80Mt/yr company by 2028, we are excited to announce commissioning the kiln in our new integrated facility at Nawalgarh, Rajasthan. This facility is well suited to cater to the high consumption cement markets of National Capital Region, Punjab and Haryana, besides strengthening the company’s customer servicing capability in Rajasthan.”