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.
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
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.
Aditya Birla Group and Holcim are rapidly increasing capacity in a bid to become the largest player in India's cement industry.
ACC, the country's largest cement maker, is setting up a wholly owned subsidiary to scale up its ready mix concrete business under a new chief executive officer.
Calvin Miller, senior officer, rural finance, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), is happy with the country's rural finance when compared with the rest of the world.
Given that more than 85 percent of the industry consists of small units, the rising trend of textile units going in for IT-related infrastructure is a positive sign.
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