Displaying items by tag: Tamil Nadu

India: The state government of Tamil Nadu has announced the launch of a new cement, called Valimai, by one of its subsidiary cement producers. The United News of India agency has reported that the government anticipates a drop in cement prices as a result of the launch. It is currently targeting a total cement capacity of 19Mt/yr with the establishment of a planned 10Mt/yr plant.

On mid-June 2021, the state government asked cement producers operating locally to lower their prices.

India: Ramco Cements plans to invest US$64m in a modernisation and capacity expansion of its Ramasay Raja Nagar cement plant in Tamil Nadu. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the project involves building a new 3000t/day clinker line to replace a 1450t/day line. This will increase the plant’s overall capacity by 32% to 1.44Mt/yr from 1.09Mt/yr. The company has placed equipment orders for the project and plans to commissions the upgrade in December 2022. It expects to receive environmental clearance for the work in September 2021.

India: Visaka Industries plans to establish a US$10.8m cement boards plant at Coimabatore, Tamil Nadu. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the plant will be the company’s fourth to produce its Vnext product range of cement boards.

Joint managing director Vamsi Gaddam said that, together with a new US$6.74m roofing plant, the Coimbatore will add US$27.0m-worth of additional turnover in their first full year of operation. She added, “While the company passed through a tough phase due to Covid-19 led disruption, we managed to do well after the lockdown with volumes coming back to normality. We are adding these two plants due to the demand for our sustainable products.”

India: Two pipe bombs have been found by police at India Cements plant at Sankarnagar, Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. The explosives were discovered after the plant manager was asked for a ransom of around US$70,000, according to the Indo-Asian News Service. Police suspect that the bombs were left at the site by former employees whose contracts were terminated due to coronavirus-related restrictions. However, terrorist activity is also being considered. The cement producer said that no one was hurt in the incident and production at the site continues uninterrupted.

India: The South India Cement Manufacturers’ Association (SICMA) has assured the public that it is collaborating with the Tamil Nadu government to implement concessionary cement prices for lower income homebuilders. The Business Standard has reported that the association and government aim to keep cement available to all. Domestic cement production capacity utilisation has been reported as low as 60% during the second wave of Covid-19 in the country with a 35% month-on-month production drop in April 2021. Increased input costs caused a price rise in the first quarter of the 2022 financial year. Cement prices are reportedly forecast to remain high in the medium term.

India: Ramco Cements has commissioned a 48 cylinder/day oxygen plant at its Ramasamy Raja Nagar cement plant in Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu. It is donating the oxygen to local hospitals treating Covid-19 patients. The cost of the plant was US$68,500. Each 45l cylinder has a useful life of 10 – 12 hours. The company says that the new plant will save around 24 lives a day.

India: France-based Fives says that Ramco Cements has ordered a second FCB TSV 5500 BF type classifier for raw material mixing at a plant in Tamil Nadu. The order follows the commissioning of a similar classifier from Fives at the same site. The upgrade is part of an overhaul of the unit’s grinding equipment. No price for the order or commissioning date has been disclosed.

India: The Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) has fined ACC subsidiary Madukkarai Cement US$61,000 for fugitive emissions of clinker and cement dust in mid-2020. The Hindu newspaper has reported that inspections found dust in the village Kurumbapalayam, Coimbatore District, located on the eastern side of the cement plant. An ambient air quality survey in September 2020 revealed higher-than-prescribed particulate volumes.

In addition to paying the fine, the producer must comply with 19 instructions of the TNPCB for air pollution control and monitoring by 7 January 2021.

India: The government of Tamil Nadu has responded to a labour shortage resulting from the coronavirus lockdown by training up local minors for construction jobs. The Hindu newspaper has reported that the regular workforce consists mainly of some of India’s 9m annual migrant workers who travel from rural areas to construction hubs such as Tamil Nadu’s state capital of Chennai.

The state-owned Tamil Nadu Cement Corporation (TANCEM) has said that it will increase cement production at its Arasu plant in Ariyalur to 3000t/day from 2000t/day in anticipation of construction growth in the second half of 2020.

Dalmia Cement threw down the gauntlet this week with the announcement of a large-scale carbon capture unit (CCU) at one of its plants in Tamil Nadu, India. An agreement has been signed with UK-based Carbon Clean Solutions Limited (CCSL) to use its technology in building a 0.5Mt/yr CCU. The partnership will explore how CO₂ from the plant can be used, including direct sales to other industries and using the CO₂ as a precursor in manufacturing chemicals. No exact completion date or budget has been disclosed.

The move is a serious declaration of intent from the Indian cement producer towards its aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2040. Dalmia has been pushing its sustainability ‘journey’ for several years now hitting targets such as reaching 6Mt of alternative raw materials usage in its 2018 financial year and reaching a clinker factor of 63% at the same time. In an article in the November 2018 issue of Global Cement Magazine it said it had achieved CO₂ emissions of 526kg/t from its cement production compared to 578kg/t from other Indian members of the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). In its eastern operations it had gone further to reach 400kg/t.

Using CCU is the next step to this progression but Dalmia’s approach is not without its caveats. Firstly, despite the size of the proposed project it is still being described as a ‘large-scale demonstration.’ Secondly, the destination of all that captured CO₂, as mentioned above, is still being considered. CCSL uses a post-combustion capture method that captures flue gas CO₂ and then combines the use of a proprietary solvent with a heat integration step. Where the capture CO₂ goes is vital because if it can’t be sold or utilised in some other way then it needs to be stored, putting up the price. Technology provider CCSL reckons that its CDRMax process has a CO₂ capture price tag of US$40/t but it is unclear whether this includes utilisation sales of CO₂ or not.

The process is along similar lines to the Skyonic SkyMine (see Global Cement Magazine, May 2015) CCU that was completed in 2015 at the Capitol Cement plant in San Antonio, Texas in the US. However, that post-combustion capture project was aiming for 75,000t/yr of CO₂. Dalmia and CCSL’s attempt is six times greater.

Meanwhile, Cembureau, the European cement association, joined a group of industrial organisations in lobbying the European Union (EU) on the Horizon Europe programme. It wants the budget to be raised to at least Euro120m with at least 60% to be dedicated to the ‘Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness’ pillar. This is relevant in a discussion on industrial CO₂ emissions reduction because the scheme has been supporting various European cement industry projects, including HeidelbergCement’s work with the Low Emissions Intensity Lime And Cement (LEILAC) consortium and Calix at its Lixhe plant in Belgium and its pilots in Norway. As these projects and others reach industrial scale testing they need this money.

These recent developments provide hope for the future of the cement industry. Producers and their associations are engaging with the climate change agenda and taking action. Legislators and governments need to work with the cement sector to speed up this process and ensure that the industry is able to cut its CO₂ emissions while continuing to manufacture the materials necessary to build things. Projects like this latest from Dalmia Cement are overdue, but are very encouraging.