Displaying items by tag: India

India: JK Cement laid the foundation stone of its upcoming 2.5Mt/yr Prayagraj grinding plant in Uttar Pradesh on 29 August 2023. The plant will cost around US$60m. The company expects to complete the project in the 2025 financial year, which begins on 1 April 2024. This will increase the producer’s grey cement capacity by 11%, to 25Mt/yr. Its ‘medium-term’ capacity goal is a further 20% growth, to 30Mt/yr.

India: The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has obtained documents which allegedly show how two people with close ties to the owners of Adani Group invested significantly in the group. Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli and Chang Chung-Ling traded in Adani Group shares through a Mauritius-based investment fund. The OCCRP reports that Ahli and Chang might be found to have been acting on behalf of Adani promoters. If so, their shareholding would bring insider investment in Adani Group to over 75%. This would potentially indicate stock manipulation under Indian law. Ahli and Changs’ investment management company reportedly paid a company owned by Vinod Adani, the brother of Adani Group chair Gautam Adani, for investment advice.

Nasser Ali Shaban Ahli is a Dubai-based business consultant, who is listed as an officer in a British Virgin Islands-based securities investment firm linked to Adani Group. Meanwhile, China-based Chang Chung-Ling has held positions on the boards of multiple Adani Group companies.

Adani Group replied “Contrary to your claim of new evidence/proofs, these are nothing but a rehash of unsubstantiated allegations levelled in the Hindenburg report. Our response to the Hindenburg report is available on our website. Suffice it to state that there is neither any truth to nor any basis for making any of the said allegations against the Adani Group and its promoters, and we expressly reject all of them."

India: Dalmia Cement (Bharat) has appointed Puneet Dalmia as its managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO). He will succeed Mahendra Singhi in the role in December 2023. Singhi will remain working for the company as Director and Strategic Advisor to the MD and CEO to aid the transition process.

Puneet Dalmia has been the MD of Dalmia Cement (Bharat)’s parent company Dalmia Bharat since 2004. Prior to this co-founded JobsAhead.com in 1999, which was sold to Monster.com in 2004. Dalmia is also the chair of the Development Council for Cement Industry (DCCI), set up by the Government of India in June 2021. He holds a master of business administration (MBA) postgraduate degree from IIM-Bangalore and holds a bachelor of technology degree from IIT-Delhi.

India: UltraTech Cement has awarded a contract to Vibrant Energy to build a 21.6MW wind farm in Maharashtra. The wind farm will provide energy for UltraTech Cement’s cement plants in the state.

Saur Energy has reported that Vibrant Energy chief executive officer Srinivasan Viswanathan, said “We are excited to partner with UltraTech and accelerate their green energy transition. This partnership marks a significant step towards a sustainable and carbon-neutral future. This will act as a catalyst for transforming not just the cement industry, but other energy-intensive industries as well.”

India: The Meghalaya State Pollution Control Board conducted the public hearing for Meghalaya Cements’ planned expansion of its Meghalaya cement plant on 24 August 2023. The producer had already secured a no objection certificate (NOC) for the expansion, which will raise the plant’s capacity by 73% to 1.49Mt/yr. The Meghalaya Monitor newspaper has reported that around 150 protestors from the local community disrupted the hearing held at Thangskai in Jaintia Hills District. The crowd reportedly demonstrated against the lack of prior engagement with the neighbourhood. It also took objection with the company’s failure to hire half of plant staff locally, as it had previously committed to do.

Meghalaya Cements has apologised and suspended two employees for their conduct during the hearing. India Today NE News has reported that the two employees used ‘unparliamentary’ language.

Meghalaya Cements said “The company once again apologises to the local people due to the behaviour of our employees. We assure you that the company is committed to promoting peace, harmony and a conducive environment for the employees and the villagers associated with our company, and also assure you that no such untoward incident will happen in the future.”

India: Solar power plant developer Oriana Power has received a US$4.2m order to supply a solar power plant to a cement producer in Rajasthan. The supplier says that it will build a 7MW ground-mounted array at the site of cement plant belonging to the producer. The engineering, procurement and construction will take until the end of January 2024.

India: Bokaro Steel Plant has won granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) supply contracts with ACC and UltraTech Cement. Under the contracts, Bokaro Steel Plant expects to supply 1.3Mt of GBFS from its facilities in Jharkhand for use in cement production in the state. The Pioneer newspaper has reported that the contracts will run until August 2026.

India: Adani Group recorded earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of US$2.85bn in the first quarter of the 2024 financial year, up by 42% year-on-year. The conglomerate’s cement business contributed an EBITDA of US$235m, up by 54% year-on-year. This represented 8.2% of the quarterly total. The group sold 15.4Mt of cement.

Financial Express Online News has reported that Adani Group said “The robust portfolio performance was primarily driven by the renewable power business under Adani Green, the infrastructure businesses under Adani Enterprises and the cement businesses under Adani Cement.”

India: Ambuja Cements’ open offer to acquire an additional 26% stake in Sanghi Industries will run from 29 September 2023 to 13 October 2023. Press Trust of India News has reported the value of shares under the offer as up to US$767m. Ambuja Cements concluded a deal to acquire a 57% stake in Sanghi Industries, for the smaller sum of US$603m, on 3 August 2023.

India: JK Cement’s sales were US$3.31bn during the first quarter of the 2024 financial year. This corresponds to year-on-year growth of 22%, from US$2.73m a year earlier. Nonetheless, its net profit dropped by 29%, to US$136m from US$193m.