Displaying items by tag: India

India: Barathi Cement has commissioned a 10MW solar power station at its 5.0Mt/yr integrated Barathi Cement Plant. The Hindu Times has reported that the facility, which spans 16.6 hectares, will partially replace combustion-derived electricity sources at the plant.

Bangladesh: Germany’s HeidelbergCement will purchase Ultratech’s stake in Emirates Cement, the owner of the 0.5Mt/yr Emirates grinding plant in Dhaka. NewAge Business has reported that Ultratech, a subsidiary of India’s Aditya Birla Group, has set the price of the stake at US$32.1m.

Ultratech first produced cement in Bangladesh following Aditya Birla Group’s acquisition of ETA Star Cement in April 2010, when it bought into the latter’s Bangladeshi subsidiary Emirates Cement for an estimated investment of US$382m. The divestment of its sole Bangladeshi asset awaits bank approval.

Bangladesh produces 58Mt/yr of cement, exceeding a market demand of 31Mt/yr. Of the 75 producers in the country, only 35 are actively making cement.

India: Ramco Cement is set to complete its expansion works, aimed at raising total production capacity to 20Mt/yr from 12.5Mt/yr, by the end of 2020.

Ramco’s capacity utilisation in the three months to 30 June 2019 was 90%, 23% above the national average of 67%. ProjectsToday reports that the company is investing US$467m in developments, including a US$347m grinding plant in Arunachal Pradesh.

The company reported net profits of US$26.7m in the quarter to 30 June 2019, up by 53.6% from US$17.3m in the same period of 2018, against a backdrop of a struggling domestic market, with national cement sales in July down by 2.8% to 3.6Mt from 3.5Mt a year ago.

India: UltraTech Cement has reported a 91% rise in its profit for the first quarter of the 2020 fiscal year, to US$170m from US$89m in the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year. Its net sales were up by 15% to US$1.49bn, despite flat sales volumes. These were 2% higher at 17.86Mt, compared to 17.48Mt a year earlier.

India: UltraTech Cement’s net sales grew by 15% year-on-year to US$1.42bn in the quarter to 30 June 2019 from US$1.23bn in the same period in 2018. Its profit before interest, depreciation and tax rose by 61% to US$402m from US$250m. Its local sales volumes increased by 3% to 17.3Mt from 16.8Mt but exports fell by 7% to 0.6Mt from 0.65Mt.

It said that it had fully integrated its UltraTech Nathdwara Cement subsidiary with its systems and processes. The plants it acquired from Jaiprakash Associations in June 2017 were operating in line with its existing plants and had achieved break-even profit before tax during the reporting quarter. The commissioning of its 4Mt/yr Bara grinding plant in Madhya Pradesh has been delayed to late 2019.

India: India Cements is planning to spend up to US$200m on a new integrated plant in Madhya Pradesh and a grinding unit near Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The move will increase its production capacity to 20Mt/yr by 2023 from 16Mt/yr at present, according to the Hindu newspaper. N Srinivasan, Vice-Chairman and managing director of India Cements said that the company was in the process of buying land in Madhya Pradesh and that it hoped to complete this by late 2019. The company holds mining lease for more than 100Mt of limestone following its acquisition of Springway Mining in Madhya Pradesh in 2018.

India: Shree Cement has ordered a MVR 6000 C-6 mill from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer. The mill will be used to grind cement at a grinding unit near Pune in the state of Maharashtra. No value for the order has been disclosed.

The new mill will be used to alternately produce 300t/hr of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) at a product fineness of 3100cm²/g acc. to Blaine or 300t/hr of Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC) containing as much as 35% of fly ash at a product fineness of 3500cm²/g acc. to Blaine or 180t/hr of ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBFS) at a product fineness of 4500 cm²/g acc. to Blaine. The mill will come equipped with a 6700kW drive.

Gebr. Pfeiffer SE will supply the core components of the mill and the gear unit from Europe and its Indian subsidiary, Gebr. Pfeiffer (India), will provide the components such as the housing of the mill and classifier, the steel foundation parts as well as the internal parts of the classifier. The Indian subsidiary will also design the plant layout and advise the customer on the equipment he will procure on his own.

Shree Cement has ordered 34 mills from Gebr. Pfeiffer previously. It has recently commissioned a grinding plant in Jharkand that also uses a mill supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer.

India: JK Lakshmi Cement’s revenue rose by 9% year-on-year to US$160m in its first quarter to 30 June 2019 from US$147m in the same period in 2018. Notably, its expenses fell by 2% to US$146m due to decreasing logistics costs. Its net profit grew significantly to US$7.58m from US$0.44m. The cement producer also said that it had commissioned a 20MW captive power plant at its Durg cement plant in Chhattisgarh.

India: CARE Ratings has identified Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh as the key states expected to lead cement production capacity additions over the next decade to 2030. In a sector report the credits agency forecast growth of 120Mt in this period. It noted that Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were among the top states in installed capacity at present. It said that the southern region led with highest installed capacity of 33% followed by the North, East, West and Central regions. Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are among the states with highest limestone resources.

India is the world’s second largest second producer but its per capita consumption is low, at 210kg. This is well below the global average of around 575kg/capita.

India: Birla Corporation says it has increased its sales revenue through ‘aggressive’ pricing, up-selling customers to premium brands and focusing on the independent home building market. Its sales revenue grew by 14% year-on-year to US$267m in the quarter to 30 June 2019 from US$236m in the same period in 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose by 49% to US$57m from US$38.3m. Its sales volumes of cement increased by 4% to 3.6Mt from 3.5Mt. The cement producer says it had a production capacity utilisation rate of 98% during the reporting period.