CEE Oct-Dec 2012

. () Green Field Plants and Expansion BIHAR TO HAVE CHAIN OF CEMENT FACTORIES Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister, Bihar recently declared that the state will have a chain of cement factories in the time to come in the backdrop of availability of abundance of raw materials like fly ash. Kumar said that there is abundance of fly ash and other raw materials required for production of cement. More fly ash will be generated from a number of power plants coming up across the state. The Chief Minister reiterated government's effort to boost industrial activities in Bihar and said that it had taken number of initiatives to attract private investment for industrial development and set up an Industrial Investment Promotion Council for the purpose. Courtesy: Indian Cement Review, Sep.2012, P11 . CEMENT FIRMS MAY GO SLOW ON CAPACITY EXPANSION Owing to issues like land acquisition, environment clearances, cement companies may go slow on capacity expansion during the current five year plan (2012-1 7), media reports suggest. Land acquisition is a big issue. No state government is providing land to set up units, and getting clearances from different authorities take time. A top official from the cement company said that new expansion is tough, for the last couple of years, the company has been trying to acquire land in Karnataka , which will take another few months. According to a working group's report, India would require 480 million tonne of standing capacity by 2011-12. Land acquisition, environment clearances, poor demand and inadequate supply of raw materials such as limestone, coal and fly ash might hamper expansion plans; say industry officials and market experts. During 2007-12, the companies added 150 million tonne of f resh capacities taking it to 330 million tonne, about 10 per cent more than the targeted 300 million tonne. The first few year of the period saw cement makers post exorbitant profits which were utilized for rapid expansion. It is learnt that majority of the cement makers are facing hurdles. Some analysts feel capacity creation would be very difficult in India owing to paucity of land and limestone deposits among others. Several cement companies have written down assets. So they expect expansion to be slower than the demand growth. Courtesy: Indian Cement Review, Sep. 2012, P11. HEIDELBERG CEMENT TO EXPAND IN INDIA Heidelberg Cement India, a subsidiary of Danish cement company Cementrum IBV, itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of HeidelbergCement AG, is investing Rs. 1,600 crore on capacity expansion and raw material logistics infrastructure. Manufacturer of the 'Mycem; branded cement in the country, Heidel bergCement India has two cement plants and three grinding facilities in Karnataka , Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Ashish Guha, CEO and MD said that they intend to expand the company's presence in the profitable markets of Bihar, the National Capital Region and Uttar Pradesh. Courtesy: Indian Cement Review, Sep. 2012, P10. INDIA CEMENTS STARTS SPADEWORK ON BROWNFIELD EXPANSION PLANS India Cements has started the paper work on a brownfield expansion to add over three million tonnes at two of its cement plants in Tamil Nadu. Acknowledging the plan, sources in the know said the objective is to get clearances in place, as these are long-term plans for the company. The brownfield expansions are at Dalavoi , where a 40 MW coal based captive power plant is also planned, and at Sankaridurg. At Dalavoi, in Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu, the company plans to add a new line that will add over 2.55 million tonnes to the existing 2.16 million tonnes annual capacity. This will take the total capacity at the plant to 4.71 million tonnes. A 2x20 MW captive power plant will also be set up to fully meet the power requirement here. A similar exercise is also on at Sankaridurg though on a smaller scale. The company has a 0.7 million tonne plant whose capacity will be doubled, the source said. Annual cement production The expansions, when they happen, will add to the company's annual cement production capacity of 15.5 mill ion tonnes spread across eight cement plants in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. The company also has two grinding plants near Chennai and Parli, Maharashtra. 9