Displaying items by tag: India

India: OCL India has held a stone-laying ceremony for its third integrated cement plant at its Rajgangpur site in Odisha. Naveen Patnaik, chief minister of Odisha state, attended the event along with the management of OCL India and its owners, Dalmia Cement (Bharat). The new unit will be known as Dalmia DSP.

The new plant will have a 2.25Mt/yr cement and 3Mt/yr clinker production capacity. Once it becomes operational it will increase production at the Rajgangpur site to 6.25Mt/yr of cement and 5.9Mt/yr of clinker.

The project has an investment of US$356m and it is expected to be commissioned by early 2020. As part of the project the cement producer also plans to build a 2.5Mt/yr cement plant with an investment of US$57m at Biswali near Cuttack.

India: UltraTech Cement has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the acquisition of the cement business of Century Textiles and Industries. The company has given its approval for the share swap deal between the companies.

The transaction will provide UltraTech an opportunity to further strengthen its presence in the east and central markets, extending its footprint in the Western and Southern markets of India.

India: Prism Johnson, formerly known as Prism Cement, has received a letter of intent from the state government of Madhya Pradesh allocating it a mining lease for limestone. The agreement lasts 50 years for a site at Bairiah and Chormari villages and it includes approximately 77Mt of reserves.

India: ACC has appointed Ashish Prasad as its Chief Marketing Officer and Head of New Products & Services. Based in Mumbai, he will also be a member of the company's executive committee. Prasad will lead the brand building and marketing efforts for ACC's cement and concrete businesses. He will be responsible for growing the portfolio through the introduction of new products and solutions, as well as the design and implementation of new services to strengthen ACC's presence as a complete solution provider in the building materials space.

Prasad holds over 20 years of experience in brand management, sales, strategy and business development at companies including Pidilite Industries, Aditya Birla Group, Asian Paints and the Coca-Cola Company. In his last role as the chief operating officer (COO) of the construction chemicals business at Pidilite Industries, he was responsible for developing and growth of Dr Fixit and Roff brands.

He is a science graduate from Delhi University and holds a management degree from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

India: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved UltraTech Cement’s acquisition of Century Textiles & Industries. UltraTech Cement said that the CCI had approved the proposed combination under sub-section (1) of section 31 of the Competition Act, 2012. Century Textiles, the cement production subsidiary of BK Birla Group, holds three integrated plants in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra respectively with a combined production capacity of 11.4Mt/yr and a 1Mt/yr grinding plant in West Bengal. The takeover has been arranged via a demerger process whereby Century Textiles’ shareholders will be given shares in UltraTech Cement.

India: Kalburgi Cement has commissioned a 1.2Mt/yr bulk terminal at Khapoli near Mumbai. The unit had an investment of US$10m, according to the Hindu newspaper. The subsidiary of France’s Vicat plans to transport cement by train from its 2.25Mt/yr Gulbarga plant to the new terminal to supply the market in Mumbai. In 2010 Vicat purchased a majority stake in Bharati Cement, which has a production capacity of 5.5Mt/yr. It sells cement under Bharati brand name.

India: Wonder Cement, a part of the Rajasthan-headquartered RK Group, has announced that it will set up a 2Mt/yr clinker grinding unit in Dhule, Maharashtra at a cost of US$64.7m. The plan marks the company’s first foray into the state. This is in addition to the earlier-announced plan to invest US$359m by the end of the 2020 financial year.

“The Dhule plant will distribute cement mainly across Maharashtra, while a minimal quantity will be supplied to Madhya Pradesh,” said Managing Director JC Toshniwal, who added that the company is also in the process of developing a railway siding for the unit.

Following the commencement of the Dhule facility, Wonder Cement’s production capacity will increase to 8.75Mt/yr from the present 6.75Mt/yr. The clinker required for the unit will be supplied from Nimbahera plant in Rajasthan. Gypsum, another raw material used for manufacturing cement, will be procured from Gujarat and fly ash from a nearby thermal power plant.

In addition to the plants in Nimbahera and Dhule, Wonder Cement is in the process of setting up a third clinker facility of about 2.5Mt/yr in Nimbahera, Rajasthan. “The civil works for the third clinker unit is in full swing,,” confirmed Toshniwal. “We will commission it by mid-2019. This will help to increase our cement production capacity to 11Mt/yr.”

Under its expansion plans, the company will look at setting up two more clinker units. One will be in Madhya Pradesh, but the location for the other is yet to be finalised.

India: Rain Industries has approved an upgrade project on a cement mill at Rain Cement’s Boincheruvupalli Village plant in Andhra Pradesh. The project is approved up to a cost of US$5.9m, funded through internal accruals. It is expected to be completed by 30 June 2019. After the upgrade the plant’s grinding capacity will increase from 2.0Mt/yr to 2.8Mt/yr.

Pakistan: Cement exports by sea from Pakistan increased by 133.7% from 144,000t in July 2017 to 340,000t in July 2018. The increase in exports via sea offset a decrease in overland exports to Afghanistan and India. Pakistan’s exports to Afghanistan and India decreased by around 44.9% and 44.4% respectively in July 2018. Hence, overall exports increased by 9.3% in July 2018 to 0.53Mt from 0.48Mt in July 2017.

India: The Madras High Court has pulled up Chettinad Cement Corportation (Chettinad) for encroaching upon public land to construct railway track to its factory at Ariyalur. It has ordered a probe by an IAS officer. Justice SM Subramaniam also ordered a probe into the role of government officials, who may have colluded with the factory management to squat on government land without permission.

"Such industries cannot encroach upon the government land, which is not only a water body, but also used as a pathway by the villagers and the people of that locality,” said Justice Subramaniam.

The court passed the order while dismissing a plea moved by Chettiand against the action of the sub-collector against the encroachment. The court further directed the district administration to evict all such encroachments made by the company on the land and water bodies within two weeks.