Displaying items by tag: India

India: Ratings agency ICRA has forecast a 25% year-on-year decline in cement sales during the first quarter of the 2022 financial year to 30 June 2021. Domestic cement demand fell by 4% year-on-year and by 35% month-on-month in April 2021, according to the Press Trust of India. The agency said that this was due to the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak to rural areas and the imposition of numerous regional lockdowns. Pent-up demand is expected to drive a gradual recovery in the second quarter from July 2021. Costs for cement companies increased by 5% nationally year-on-year in April 2021. Increased fuel, power and transport costs all contributed to the rise.

India: JSW Cement has launched a new set of products in the construction chemicals sector. These will include floor hardeners, waterproofing compounds and readymix plaster. The company’s 0.3Mt/yr chemical plant at Ballari in Karnataka is supporting the move.

Construction Chemicals business head Mubin Hussain said "With advances in green product technologies, this sector will see a dynamic shift from conventional construction mix ratios to extracted by-product engineered compositions. Construction chemicals and dry mix mortars are expected to grow fourfold by the 2025 financial year."

India: Star Cement’s net profit after tax fell by 35% year-on-year to US$25.7m in its financial year to 31 March 2021 from US$39.3 in the same period in 2020. Its revenue dropped by 7% to US$235m from US$252m.

India/US: Mahendra Singhi, the head of India-based Dalmia Cement (Bharat), has been invited to represent the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) as Carbon Pricing Champion. He will work with Feike Sijbesma, Honorary Chair of Board of Royal DSM to devise carbon pricing strategies for the Asia-Pacific region

The CPLC is a global coalition promoted by the World Bank Group. It is represented by 34 national and sub-national governments, 172 private sector organizations 100 strategic partners non government organisations, business organisations, and universities. The voluntary initiative aims to accelerate climate change mitigation by securing the place of carbon pricing on the global agenda.

India: Anjani Portland Cement has completed its acquisition of an 83% stake in Bhavya Cements. The transaction’s value was US$83.2m

India: LafargeHoclim subsidiary Ambuja Cement has launched Ambuja Cool Walls, a product consisting of its aerated pre-cast concrete blocks. The producer says that Cool Walls have improved strength compared to walls made of brick. They also increase buildings’ insulation, according to the producer.

India: JSW Group has established a new large projects division. The division combines the former large projects division of its subsidiaries JSW Cement and JSW Steel. It will use the group’s new end-to-end sales platform Aikyam, according to United News of India. The integration is expected to create large scale volume opportunities for the steel and cement businesses in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Director Parth Jindal said, "JSW Group has the unique advantage of providing an integrated offering to its large customers in the infrastructure and building industries space.” He added "I expect Aikyam to fundamentally change the way JSW works with its large clients, while ensuring that our relationships continue to get stronger through a single group interface, bolstered by strong internal collaboration. In the near future we plan to offer other group products such as paints, construction chemicals, ready-mix concrete and many others to our large institutional customers through the Aikyam interface."

India: Dalmia Bharat subsidiary Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has marked World Environment Day with the ceremonial planting of a tree at the Bokaro cement plant in Jharkhand. In Assam, the company planted 6000 Neem, Royal Poinciana and Yellow Poinciana saplings and 4km of bamboo fence around its Alsthom Industries cement plant in Jagiroad.

Dalmia Cement (Bharat) executive director Indrajit Chatterji said, “We at Dalmia Cement have been firm believers in creating a clean and green ecosystem, especially in this pandemic situation across the world. With this tree plantation drive, we would humbly like to make a contribution towards the nature. I would urge all, to come forward and join hands to do our bit towards enabling a greener environment not only for us, but for the future generations to come. We, as a responsible corporate citizen, will always come forward to do whatever we can for the society at large.”

India: The Maharashtra parliament has formed a four-member committee to review the possible wildlife impacts of Birla Corporation subsidiary Reliance Cement’s planned Yavatmal cement plant in Mukutban, Maharashtra. The Times of India has reported that the plant received Stage II environmental clearance in 2018. In 2019, dry forest due for clearance under the plant plans was found to constitute part of a tiger corridor. As a result, Reliance Cement must apply to the Maharashtra State Board for Wildlife. The parliamentary committee will visit the site and prepare a report for the board.

Another week and it’s another commodity story related to the effects of coronavirus. This time the Indian press and financial analysts have started to notice a shift in the fuel mix of some of the major producers from petcoke to coal. UltraTech Cement moved to 30% petcoke and 60% imported coal in the fourth quarter of its 2021 financial year that ended on 31 March 2021. This compares to a reported mix of 77% and 10% in the previous year according to Mint. Dalmia Bharat reduced its share of petcoke to 52% in the fourth quarter from 70% in the third quarter, while its coal mix was 35 - 40% in the fourth quarter.

Price is the driver here. UltraTech Cement’s chief financial officer Atul Daga summed the situation up in an earnings call in late January 2021. Essentially, he said that fuel represented about 13% of total costs for cement producers in India and that both the cost of coal and petcoke nearly doubled from June 2020 to January 2021. However, coal is seen as the cheaper option, hence the move towards it in the fuels mix ratio. The petcoke market meanwhile has suffered due to reduced oil refinery output due to, you guessed it, the effect of coronavirus on global markets in 2020. Scarcity in the US market has particularly affected the decisions on buyers for Indian cement companies since this is the key source of their imports. Demand for petcoke from Latin America and the Mediterranean hasn’t helped either. Both petcoke and coal markets are expected to stabilise in the second half of 2021. Diesel prices have also risen recently causing UltraTech Cement’s power and fuel costs to increase by 28% year-on-year to US$356m and logistics costs, including freight expenses, to rise by 25% to US$449m in the fourth quarter of its 2021 financial year.

With this in mind it’s interesting then, that for some analysts at least, fuel prices have been seen as more worrying for cement producer profits than the latest round of coronavirus-related lockdowns from India’s second wave of infection. Fitch Ratings for example, warned that the impact of mounting fuel costs would continue to be seen in the quarter to June 2021 but that it would subside due to the switch in fuel mix and price rises passed to end consumers. On the lockdowns, it forecast that localised restrictions, with cement plants being allowed to continue operating in most states, would cause a far less pronounced drop in cement demand than during the first national lockdown.

Graph 1: Monthly cement production in India, January 2019 – April 2021. Source: Office of the Economic Adviser.

Graph 1 above shows that the crisis the Indian cement sector faced during the first lockdown, when production crumbled by 85% year-on-year to 4.3Mt in April 2020. The following recovery saw production reach its second highest ever figure at 32.9Mt in March 2021. It’s too soon to tell what’s happening from the national figure but that dip in April 2021 is not looking good so far.

One benefit from unstable fuel prices is that it builds the economic case for cement producers to raise their alternative fuels substitution rates. UltraTech Cement, for example, reported that its ‘green’ energy rate grew to 13% in its 2021 financial year from 11% in 2020. With a target of 34% by its 2024 financial year, this is an ideal opportunity for a change for both UltraTech Cement and other producers.