The government is likely to come up with export sops for the domestic textiles industry in the upcoming Budget, including a rise in duty drawback rates.
The Aditya Birla Group company has already spent over Rs 3,000 crore on projects to take its production capacity from 17 million tonnes to 21.9 mt and plans to further scale up till 23.1 mt by June-end. K C Birla, chief financial officer, said, "We will continue to maintain our market share and, if required, we will go ahead with more capacity additions to ensure we don't become a loser in the market."
During the last six months, since the cement market witnessed an unexpected surge in demand which later was followed by incessant rise in cement prices, the valuations have jumped by 48 per cent. The replacement cost is the amount of capital needed to replace an old cement plant.
ACC, the country's largest cement maker that had temporarily idled a plant in Himachal Pradesh this month, said it has kept all options open on similar shutdowns at its other locations in case there is no satisfactory demand for its products.
The 204 million-tonne industry is under pressure due to excess capacities coming onstream across the country. Imported coal prices, which touched $200 a tonne in the first half of the current financial year, have now come down drastically.
Cement-maker to increase capacity to 20 MT with three new units. After acquiring L&T Concrete and capturing over 25 per cent of the market share in ready-mix concrete space in the country, the cement major is set to establish a pan-India presence. The company has plans to set up at least three greenfield units with a capacity of 2.5 MT each. According to sources, the company has zeroed in on Rajasthan, Karnataka and Meghalaya for the facilities.
In the latest annual report posted on its website, Danone has said it is negotiating with its partner with a view to selling its 25.5 per cent indirect stake in Britannia.
A day before the deadline of exclusive takeover talks between Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications and South African company MTN expires, Reliance Industries has invoked the dispute resolution clause of the non-competition agreement against RCom. However, RCom plans to go ahead with its proposed merger with MTN without taking RIL's claim into account.
The Kenyan government has dumped the Mumbai-based group in favour of a Libyan company for a 50 per cent stake in a refinery project in Mombasa. Essar officials said they are still negotiating with the Kenyan government so that they can invest in the project.
Swiss cement major, Holcim, promoter of two of India's biggest cement companies, ACC and Ambuja Cements, said there is no escape from increasing the cement prices in the country considering the high energy costs.
The Ruias of the Essar group have decided to get into yet another takeover battle. And this time they are taking on none other than Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, the owner of world's largest steel maker, ArcelorMittal, to take over the Bulgarian steel firm, Kremikovtzi AD, an ailing steel mill owned by Mittal's younger brother Pramod Mittal.
The Aditya Birla group's wireless telephony firm Idea Cellular has agreed to buy Spice Communications in a three-stage deal in which minority shareholders of Spice would be given an option either to swap their shares for the Birla group firm or sell them in an open offer.
Telecom to Telekom Malaysia in an attempt to complete the merger, sources involved in the negotiations said, declining to be identified. The group has hired Enam Financial as adviser to the transaction. Investment banking sources said the lawyers from both the parties are now busy structuring the deal so that the acquisition meets all the regulatory norms of the country and the Birlas retain control over Idea Cellular.
Idea Cellular, the Aditya Birla group firm that is on the verge of taking over Spice Communications by buying out B K Modi's 41 per cent stake, is sounding out its bankers to raise funds to upgrade in the struggling telecom operator's network and technology.
Kolkata-based personal care products maker Emami, which made a hostile takeover bid for Zandu Pharmaceuticals, on Friday forced the latter to withdraw a plan to offer preferential shares to its promoters.Zandu had sent notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange late on Thursday evening saying its board would meet to discuss a preferential share issue to the promoters and directors.Emami lawyers swung into action and sent legal notice early on Friday to Zandu's board.
Chinese equipment is comparatively cheaper than those from Europe. Puneet Dalmia, managing director, Dalmia Cement, said, "At present, we have no plans to bring machinery from China as there are unclear evidences regarding how long the plant would last." Cement majors such as ACC and Shree Cement has imported a small part of their equipment need from China, but these do not make part of the main cement plant.
The company is among the largest exporters of cement and clinker via Gujarat ports. "The step will not have any impact on cement prices. The step taken by the government is a good and sensible one. The export ban offered no assistance in making cement available in the domestic market as a majority of the exports was in clinker form," said A L Kapur, managing director, Ambuja Cements.
The acquisitions, costing more than $1.6 billion, have helped Holcim corner close to quarter of the country's 189 million-tonne cement market. Lafarge, which entered India in 1999 by acquiring the cement division of Tata Steel and bought out Raymond's cement facility in 2001, has a capacity of only 5.5 million tonnes. Holcim also plans to invest around Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) in the next five years to set up plants.
The 189-million tonne domestic cement industry is gearing up to tackle attrition in the industry.
The statement from the industry came minutes after Finance Minister P Chidambaram said around noon that the government was trying to persuade cement companies to lower prices. On Thursday evening, India's largest cement manufacturer ACC, which accounts for over one-tenth of the market, had announced its intent to freeze prices for two-three months.
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