French cement major Lafarge SA, the world's second-largest cement maker, has emerged the frontrunner in the race to acquire the ready-mix concrete business of engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro.
According to industry analysts, this will have a marginal effect because hardly 10 per cent of the cement sold in the country has the maximum retail price of Rs 250 a bag (50 kg). H M Bangur, president, Cement Manufacturers' Association and managing director of Shree Cement, said: "Such a measure will have impact on certain regions of the country where the prices are on the higher side. This will include the north-east, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Mumbai."
Bestway Cement, part of the UK-based Bestway Group, is probably the first company from Pakistan not to take fresh orders. In a letter (of which Business Standard has a copy) to the commerce secretary, Zameer Choudrey, group chief executive, Bestway, said, "Because of logistical problems, we are unable to deliver the cement to them (Indian importers) and hence we stopped taking new orders over a month ago."
According to sources, the company will invest $350-400 million in the proposed plant. This will be the first foray by an Indian company for manufacturing cement in West Asia which was so far viewed as an export market.
The cement industry is likely to add around 15 million tonnes of fresh capacity in 2007-08 - a little over half of the 27 million tonnes it had talked about at the beginning of the financial year.
Grasim Industries, a part of the Aditya Birla group, has decided to sell 53.3 per cent stake in Shree Digvijay Cement Company (SDCC) to Cimpor, a Portuguese cement maker, for Rs 322 crore (Rs 3.22 billion).
The arrival of new crop will start by the end of October, especially from Madhya Pradesh.
Global retail giant Wal-Mart is in talks with several domestic textile firms for its Indian operation, which is expected to begin next year
Britannia Industries, the country's top biscuit maker, has taken the income tax department, Kolkata, to court after it received a show-cause notice asking it to explain the withdrawal of funds from the employees' pension fund in 2003.
Kode has proved that justice may be delayed but it cannot be denied to the 257 innocent who lost their lives in the blasts.
The Aditya Birla group's financial services firm, Birla Global, has seen some top level resignations.
When the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission shot off notices to 14 cement producers on July 25 for allegedly colluding to raise prices, it was New Delhi's latest flank against the industry.
The cement industry consumed around 25.35 million tonnes of coal last year. Of the last year's offtake, 14.18 mt was through coal linkages from Coal India and Singareni Collieries, which in the past had been over 20 mt.
Global management consultancy firm McKinsey has moved the Bombay high court against Reliance Industries and Reliance Communications for non-payment of dues of Rs 27 crore
The euro 14 billion French dairy major, Groupe Danone, has formally initiated arbitration proceedings to end its partnership with the Mumbai-based Wadia group.
Reach out-of-court settlement on trademark violation.
When Mumbai-born architect Mukesh Mehta first waded into Dharavi a decade ago, he went in as - in his own words - a mercenary looking to make money
Defaults due to rising rates resulted in the move.
Two former directors on the Larsen & Toubro board have returned the employee stock option shares to the company following an out-of-court settlement reached this week with two government-owned financial institutions.
India Inc's bid to stop people from joining rivals has not found favour with the judiciary.
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