Madras Cement Setting up 400TPH Limestone Beneficiation Unit

Madras Cements is setting up a limestone beneficiation plant that will help it upgrade cement raw material resources and extend the life of limestone mines.

The company will install the first of the beneficiation plant at a cost of Rs 30 crore at Alathiyur in Tamil Nadu, where it has a 3 million tonnes-a-year cement plant.

Once the 400 tonnes-per-hour beneficiation unit is stabilised, the company will establish similar facilities at other plants, according to A.V. Dharmakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer, Madras Cements.

The company has a total annual capacity of about 13 million tonnes of cement production across five plants distributed across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Limestone is the principal raw material of cement. A key gauge of raw material quality is its silicon dioxide content, which can be around 11-14 per cent for cement grade limestone.

In low-grade limestone, the silicon dioxide content can go up to 30 per cent.

The low-grade material is either rejected or the company has to buy high-quality, sweetener grade of limestone with eight per cent silicon dioxide and blend it with cement grade and low grade limestone for use.

Significant quantities are involved with the Alathiyur plant using about 10,000 tonnes of limestone daily which comprise 6,800 tonnes of cement grade and 1,500 tonnes of low-grade raw material blended with 1,700 tonnes of sweetener.

Once the beneficiation plant is in place, the low-grade limestone will be processed to remove excess contaminant and upgraded with just 12.5 per cent silicon dioxide.

The cement plant will simply use equal quantities of beneficiated and high grade limestone.

The company will be able to avoid wastage of huge quantities of natural mineral resource and extend the life of the limestone quarry, Dharmakrishnan said.

Ultratech Cement to set up Rs 2,500-cr plant in Tamilnadu

Ultratech Cement has initiated steps to set up a Rs 2,500-crore greenfield cement plant in Tamil Nadu, according to reliable sources.

The public hearing for the project was conducted in May as part of the environment impact assessment and management plan. The preliminary work on the environment clearances is on.

The Aditya Birla Group company plans to set up a 5.5-million-tonne-a-year cement plant with 4.5-mt clinker production, 75 MW captive power plant (with additional power from diesel generating sets of about 18 MW) and a waste heat recovery facility of about 15 MW.

The factory will have two production lines of 2.25 million tonnes each. The total project area is about 263 hectares with a plant area of about 86 ha.

The company is among the largest cement producers in India with a total annual capacity of about 52 million tonnes distributed across 11 cement plants.

According to sources, while the actual investment could take time, the company's decision to go ahead with environment clearances — a process that could take over a year or more — is an indication of its long-term plans. Ultratech has been mulling plans for a Tamil Nadu factory for quite some time and has now taken it forward.

Ultratech's factory will add to the 36 million tonnes of cement production capacity in Tamil Nadu.

Orient Cement gets environmental clearance for 3MTPA cement plant at Karnataka

Orient Cement Ltd has received environmental clearance for its three million-tonne-a-year cement plant at Chittapur in Gulbarga district of Karnataka.

A top source in CK Birla Group toldBusiness Line that the company began construction work at the project site recently. The new Rs 1,75- crore project would be largely funded by internal resources.

"It is expected to be ready by the end of December 2015," the source said. The project would increase the cement output capacity to 8 million tonne-a-year (mt) a year. Orient Cement is the hived off cement business unit of Orient Paper & Industries.

It has a plant at Devapur in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh and a split-grinding unit at Nashirabad, in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. According to the management, the company aims to reach 15 mt a year by 2020.

Orient Cement, once a division of Orient Paper and now a public company (the demerger took retrospective effect from April 1, 2012), is yet to list its stock.

The group sources said the process of listing was on and it would be over "shortly". The shareholders of Orient Paper have been allotted shares of the new company in the ratio of 1:1.

The face value of the new entity would be Re 1. It is to be listed on both NSE and BSE.

Holcim rejigs Indian operations, Ambuja cements and ACC to merge

World's fourth-largest cement producer, plans to carry out a substantial restructuring of Indian ops include a much-anticipated merger between its two local subsidiaries.

Holcim, the world's fourth-largestcement producer, plans to carry out a substantial restructuring of Indian operations that could include a much-anticipated merger between its two local subsidiaries - Ambuja Cements and ACC. In both these entities, Holcim owns a little more than 50%. 


The Swiss giant has tasked a global investment bank with evaluating various options on how the two operations could be combined, said multiple sources aware of the developments. But they added the exercise is at a preliminary stage and cautioned that there is still no certainty about the shape of the eventual outcome. 

One option could be to merge both the firms. Yet another option could be to create a new company and then issue shares of the new entity to the shareholders of both. The second option, say the sources quoted earlier, is a more complex and expensive one. It is, however, almost certain thatHolcim will maintain both the existing brands in India, even post-merger. 

"The initiative is being spearheaded from Holcim's headquarters for the past few months. This is part of a bigger strategy that has been underway to optimise operations through common synergies, cost controls, etc," said one of the officials mentioned above. 

ACC, Ambuja Account for 20% of Holcim's Global EBITDA 

"But it (the proposal for a merger) is still at an exploratory stage and has not yet been taken up by the boards of the two subsidiaries," said one of the officials mentioned above, who is privy to the ongoing discussions. 

Currently, ACC and Ambujaaccount for almost 20% of Holcim's global EBITDA. "So, a decision will be taken only after a detailed analysis and (with) extreme caution. This is a strategic market for them," he added. 

Holcim, however, denied any plans to bring ACC and Ambuja together. "At this point in time, there are no plans to merge the two Indian companies," said Peter Stopfer, the global head of media relations at Holcim, in an email response. But responding to specific queries on roping in external advisors to suggest a restructuring blueprint, Stopfer said, "We are constantly exploring opportunities to improve collaboration and efficiencies between the two companies." 

Board members of ACC and Ambuja told ET that there had been no discussion on the subject. However, some are expecting the matter to come up at Ambuja's upcoming board meeting scheduled later this month. If merged, ACC and Ambuja will have an annual combined capacity of 58 million tonnes. It will then be a close second toAditya Birla Group's UltraTech, which is the largest national player with a combined capacity of around 62 million tonnes. The ACC-Ambuja combine will become among the world's top 15 companies. Both the companies are planning to add 9 million tonnes by October 2015, which will take their capacity to 69 million tonnes. 

In 2006, Holcim acquired management control inAmbuja Cements. A year earlier, it had teamed up with Gujarat Ambuja to buy a majority stake in ACC. In 2011, the founder-promoters of Ambuja Cement - Narotam Sekhsaria and his partner Suresh Neotia - exited the company by selling their residual 0.79% stake to a unit of Holcim. Sekhsaria, however, remains the chairman of both ACC and Ambuja. Since then, Holcim has embarked on an initiative to increase synergies between the two companies. For example, the two firms already have a common procurement centre with representatives from the two companies, which operates out of ACC's Thane office. From coal to raw materials, explosives and packaging, most of the important purchases worth Rs 12,000 crore are done jointly to save costs. This also dovetails with a global programme initiated in May 2012, called the Holcim Leadership Journey, which aims to battle the slowdown in the EU by achieving organic growth, reducing costs and improving top line. According to the company, the target is to increase the return on invested capital to at least 8% after tax between 2012 and the end of 2014. Increasing operating profit by at least 1.5 billion Swiss Francs by the end of 2014 is also part of the programme. 

Operational synergies and shareholding apart, most of the senior Holcim global leadership is already overseeing the two Indian operations via the boardroom. Bernard Fontana, the global CEO of Holcim, is a member on the boards of both the Indian entities. So is his colleague Paul Hugentobler, who is a member of the global executive committee. Onne van der Weijde, the current MD of Ambuja Cements, has been the former CFO of ACC. His deputy, Ajay Kapur, who is now the company's CEO, has been a former executive assistant of Sekhsaria. 

Analysts are a divided lot. "There will be significant reduction in fixed and freight costs. And I would say this would be in sync with what Holcim has always wanted. They have gradually absorbed the local conditions for all these years. A merger was inevitable as it makes life so much simpler for them. The question was always 'when'," said the cement analyst of a leading foreign brokerage on the condition of anonymity. 

However, Holcim does not have the balance sheet globally to push through a merger, feels a London-based research analyst who tracks the company. "They will have to convince the minority shareholders of the two companies," he felt. Some worry about integrating the two operations with plants of varying vintages. "ACC's units are older than Ambuja's. It's not exactly a homogenous business," said a former senior official of the company. The transfer of assets will also attract a stamp duty that can vary from 5-10% across states. "A merger can also face regulatory challenges and the Competition Commission may investigate both the combined market share and its impact on trade practices," the former executive warned.

Dalmia Cement Plans Rs 1800 Cr Expansion

To strengthen its presence both nationally and in the North-East, cement maker Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd (DCBL) plans to invest Rs 1,800 crore for capacity expansion over the next two years.

While the company would invest Rs 1,300 crore for its upcoming 2.5-million tonnes greenfield project at Belgaum, Karnataka, its plants in North-East would entail an estimated investment of Rs 500 crore, Puneet Yadu Dalmia, Managing Director, told reporters here on Friday.

According to Dalmia, the company currently has a total capacity of 17 mt and wants to add nearly four mt by 2014-15.

The company has recently acquired Meghalaya-based Adhunik Cement with an investment of nearly Rs 560 crore and increased its stake in Calcom Cement in Assam.

Meanwhile, OCL India Ltd would invest nearly Rs 500 crore for a 1.5-mt grinding plant near Salboni in West Bengal. DCBL holds 45.4 per cent stake in OCL India.

According to Dalmia, the project should be commissioned by the end of 2013.

Heidelberg Cement Expands Capacity to 5MTPA

Expanding cement making capacity in India, Germany's HeidelbergCement today commissioned first phase of its Rs 1,400 crore expansion plans, taking its production to five million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

The leading global cement maker, which had entered into the Indian market by acquiring Mysore Cements in 2006, had 3.1 mtpa capacity before its Jhansi grinding unit in Uttar Pradesh went on stream.

The Jhansi unit's capacity has now gone up to 2.7 mtpa from 0.8 mtpa earlier.

"This is the first move towards our expansion plans in Central India. With the commissioning of the new mill that has been funded through mix of internal accruals and debts, the company has increased its all India cement capacity to five mtpa," Ashish Guha, CEO & Managing Director, HeidelbergCement India, said.

The company is also enhancing capacity in Damoh in Madhya Pradesh to raise the capacity to six mtpa, a company source said, adding that the date of commissioning of the project would be announced soon.

"Total investment in these two plants amounts to Rs 1,400 crore," the source said.

HeidelbergCement, which mainly caters to the Central market and now trying to position its 'mycem' brand in other parts of the country had achieved highest ever cement sales of 2.81 million tonnes in 2011.

"We expect cement consumption to grow at a relatively higher rate in Central region and stand committed towards bettering the prospects for our stakeholders," Guha said.