Cement, Energy and Environment

said. Government Housing Board accommodation generally is in four storey buildings while taller buildings are being built in Mumbai and other cities." Growing markets India's five largest cities are the main centres of residential accommodation construction and consequently are the major markets for cement used for residential property construction. The country's five leading cities, known locally as 'metros' consist of the capital, New Delhi , the country's leading financial centre Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Chennai (formerly Madras) and Kolkata (formerly Calcutta). Infrastructure construction is another growing cement market with heavy investment in the transport sector, in particular causing a strong increase in demand for cement. "Sea ports and airports are being built; also, both state and national highways are being constructed by the government," Joshi said. "There are some private Build , Operate and Transfer (BOT) projects to construct toll highways such as the Mumbai- Pune highway also, road bridge schemes that charge toll fees are being built for state governments to operate." India's highway and road network is currently 3.3 million km long and is the second largest road network in the world. As part of efforts to increase rural development and improve local and regional transport facilities , the Ministry of Road & Transport and Highways is planning total investment in road transport infrastructure to reach US$354 billion by 2012. CMA and the cement industry continue to lobby for construction of concrete roads to be expanded as the use of cement in road construction is around 4 per cent cheaper than using bitumen for road building . In addition, cement manufacturers point out that bitumen needs to be imported , which further raises the cost of building roads for India. Under government plans announced for the current 2010 - 2011 financial year, some US$37.4 billion has been allocated for infrastructure development. The budgetary allocation for roads construction this year has been lifted by 13 per cent to US$4.3 billion . Increase in production India is the world's second largest cement producer with a total installed production capacity of 224 million t as at 30 April , 2010 according to CMA. Cement consumption during the past year is expected to show a 9 or 10 per cent increase when figures are published for the financial year ending 30 June 2010 (FY 2009/201 0). CMA recently reported that monthly cement production reached 14.5 million t in May 2010, up 1.2 million t or 13.3 per cent compared with 13.28 million t in May 2009. The volume of cement dispatched in may was 14.2 million t, up from 13.1 million t in May 2009. Cement manufacturers have been reporting strong increases in monthly production and shipments this year. According to CMA, Holcim-owned Ambuja Cement, for example, sold 16 per cent more cement in April y/y, shipping 1.9 million t compared with 1.6 million t in April2009. Among other cement companies announcing rising orders , Jaiprakash Associates reported much stronger demand in April, shipping 1.25 million t to customers - an increase of 57 per cent compared with 800 000 t shipped the same month the previous year. Aditya Birla Group, meanwhile, reported a 6.2 per cent rise in April , dispatching 3.38 million t of cement to clients. Both India's cement production capacity and annual output have grown strongly during the past five years . According to CMA, the total installed production capacity has grown at a compound rate of 8.5 per cent, reaching 219 million t in FY 2008/2009 compared with 146 million t in FY 2003/2004. The cement industry's operative capacity has risen at a higher rate of 9.2 per cent compared to the actual increase in overall production capacity and stood at 214 million t in 2008/2009 up from 138 million t five years previously. Meanwhile, the utilization ratio for cement production capacity has also risen over the past half decade in line with a strong increase in cement consumption. In 2008/2009, some 88 per cent of India's cement production capacity was used compared with 82 per cent in 2003/2004. Regional variations Although India's cement industry continues to grow nationally, marked regional differences have become apparent in both the installation of new cement production capacity and the annual growth in cement production and the annual growth in cement production during the past five years. Northern and southern India have witnessed the largest increases in cement manufacturing capacity and actual cement output since 2004_ 88 --- - -- -----