Cement and Energy

by three major sectors of economy, viz. , Power, Coal and Rai l Transport. Further, regionwise, statewise and clusterwise capacity distribution aggravate these constraints. Indian Cement Industry Structure Poised to become the second largest producer by the year 2000 A.D. , Indian cement industry is a unique combin ation of very large to very small capacity and very modern to very old technology plants. The approximate processwise di stribution is : Dry 88%, Wet I 0% and Semi-Dry 2%. The present capacity of 96 Mio TPA is distributed over 115 large size (200.000 TPA and above) plants belonging to 57 companies. Besides, a capacity of 9 Mio TPA is spread over 300 mini cement (less than 200,000 TPA) plants. Historically the cement plants have been located m the vicinity of limestone deposits and thi s has resulted in uneven regionwise di stri bution of cement production capacity (West - 4 1%, South- 26%, North- 24% and East - 9%). A major part of the capacity/large size plants form part of clusters, namely, Bilaspur, Chanderia, Satna, Chandrapur, Gu lbarga, Yerraguntla and Nalgonda with an aggregate capacity of 49 Mio TPA or 51% of the total instal led capacity of 96 Mio TPA as on 31 March 1997. Infrastructural constraints- Coal and power costs inhi bit cost economy. Plants in these clusters have been facing excruciatin g combination of in frastructural bottlenecks of power shortages/cuts/restrictions, coal and cement movement prohlems and inadequate availabi lity of wagons from different zonal Rai lways to transport cement over long haulage distances to Northern, Eastern and North Eastern states. As is well known , the quantum jump in cemen t production capacity has been achieved in the last 15 years which started wi th the partial decontrol in 1982, fu ll decontrol in 1989 and delicensing of the industry in July 1991. However, unli ke Japan, Korea and USA, modernisation and technological upgradation was not simultaneously taken up. This culminated in disadvantages of very high cost of produclion due to lack of economies of scale and high energy costs for coal and power consumption. While location of plant vis-a-vis market, qualitative/quantitative availability of raw materials and energy intensity decide the profitability in the present scenario of over-supply/depressed demand and fall in prices, smaller plants being energy intensive have been hit the hardest, compared to latest large capacity, capital intensive plants set up in the recent years. As a result many of these have been closed down or are facing closure. While the scale economies without doubt play a critical role in increasing energy efticiency per unit of production, the major factors which contribute to coal and power consumption arc characteristics of raw materials and coal, particularly the grindability and burnability of raw mix/materi als. Energy Conservation Efforts The decades 1980's and 1990's have witnessed major technological advances in cement plant equipment/systems, such as Single-stage crushers, On-line Bulk Material Analyzers, Vertical Roller Mills, High Pressure Roller Presses and 5/6 Stages Low-Pressure Cyclone Pyro Process Systems. The economic necessity for high productivity and energy efficient plants has been the moti vating force for their developmenlfadoption . The declining trend m heat and power consumption over the last 40-50 years as achieved by incorporation of these technological improvements is discern ible from Table I. 2 I •