Displaying items by tag: India

India: The proposed merger between OCL India and Dalmia Cement East has been approved by the board of directors of OCL India. Following the amalgamation the company will be known as OCL India.

India: Shailendra Chouksey, president of the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA), has warned that cement prices could rise by up to 10% due to growing fuel and transportation costs. The local industry grew by 14% in the first half of the 2018 – 2019 year, according to the Press Trust of India.

"There is a very dire need to correct the pricing. In the last year we have seen 60-70% rise in the cost of fuel. To recover at least some portion of this increase, we need to increase the prices of cement," said Chouksey. He added that cement prices had been ‘almost stagnant’ since around 2011. However, he conceded that the industry still has surplus capacity.

India: Emami Cement has started the process to file an initial public offering (IPO) for US$135m. It plans to issue equity shares worth US$37.5m and offer another US$37.5bn to existing shareholders, according to the Business Standard newspaper. Proceeds from offering will be used for debt repayment and general corporate purposes. The cement producer has a production capacity of 5.6Mt/yr from three plants in eastern India. It is also planning to open a new 3.7Mt/yr plant in April 2019.

India: A joint-venture project involving the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to build a new cement plant at Sundargarh in Odisha has stalled. Following support by local politicians for the plans in February 2017 no further action has been taken, according to the New Indian Express newspaper. SAIL originally made plans in 2006 to use blast furnace slag from the Rourkela Steel Plant and fly ash of NTPC-SAIL Power Company for the unit. It also intended pick up the lease for a limestone mine at Purunapani. However, it later ran into troubles securing state agreement to use the mine.

India: Tamil Nadu Cements Corporation plans to start commercial operation of a new 1Mt/yr production line at its Ariyalur plant in Tamil Nadu in early 2019. Construction work on the US$100m project was originally started in May 2016 and it is due to be completed in October 2018, according to the Hindu newspaper. Testing and trial runs will then start in November 2018. Following the upgrade, the state-owned plant will have a total production capacity of 1.5Mt/yr.

India: Kesoram Industries has received approval from the state government of Karnataka to buy 675 acres of land for mining limestone reserves. The subsidiary of BK Birla Group plans to use the acquisition to increase its existing limestone reserves, according to the Hindu newspaper. The amount the cement producer will pay for the land is still being negotiated and will be paid over a two-year period.

India: Shree Cement has ordered a TRT 5000/8.0 Triplex dryer from Germany’s Gebr. Pfeiffer. The dryer will be used to dry flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) gypsum from a captive coal-power plant for use in cement plants. In the planned dryer plant the moisture of the FGD gypsum will be reduced to a residual moisture of <2%. Artificial gypsum from the dryer will be used at other cement grinding plants in the country. The 50t/hr dryer will be installed at the end of 2018 and is expected to start commercial operation in mid-2019.

Gebr. Pfeiffer is also planning to partially calcine the gypsum in future installations of the dryer. The TRT Triplex dryer uses the uniflow principle, where both material and hot gasses flow in the same direction and pass through the dryer tubes from the centre outwards. Testing at the Gebr. Pfeiffer test station have yielded ‘positive’ results and further installations in other plants are being considered.

India: NCL Industries’ cement production rose by 36% year-on-year to 1.02Mt in the half year to the end of September 2018 from 0.75Mt in the same period in 2017. Its cement despatches increased by a similar amount to 1.02Mt from 0.75Mt. The company operates in cement, cement-based boards, ready-mixed concrete, prefabricated structures and hydroelectric power.

India: Star Cement has imported over 1200t of fly ash from NTPC Kahalgaon in Bihar. The ash was transported by the Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) via Bangladesh to Pandu Port in Assam, according to the Financial Express newspaper. The water route was chosen due to a lack of railway links in India's north-eastern states.

India: The Supreme Court has agreed to examine a plea by cement producers about a charge of cartel-like behaviour made by real estate developers and upheld by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). However, the court has insisted that the payment schedule of the fine imposed will have to be upheld while the appeal proceeds, according to the Economic Times newspaper. The accused cement producers have been ordered to deposit 10% of the fine.

10 cement companies – including India Cements, Ramco Cements, Nuvoco Vistas Corporation, Ambuja Cement, ACC, Jaiprakash Associates, Century Textiles and Industries and UltraTech Cement – were accused by the Builders' Association of India and the CCI in 2010 of cartel-like behaviour. They were then fined US$905m or 0.5% of their net turnover. The producers first tried to appeal with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) but the tribunal dismissed their plea against the CCI finding in late July 2018.