At the time of going to press there comes some positive news. Cement stocks have outperformed, as against other indices, at the stock market. The bigger enterprises such as ACC, Ambuja and UltraTech are doing well and this is befuddling the analysts. There are too many negatives for cement companies at the moment. Lower demand, margin pressure, lower capacity utilisation, higher input costs, lower-than-expected growth in profits and the decade’s lowest demand growth, and yet, investors seem to have reasons to believe that the cement sector will do well in the future.Not just cement, the seven other core infrastructure industries growth slowed down to 2.3 per cent for September as against 3.3 per cent during the same period a year ago, mainly due to rising cost of credit and inputs and weak demand. The same grew by 3.7 per cent in August. Steel and cement sectors are down and grew at a pace of 6.6 per cent and 0.9 per cent as against 11.7 per cent and 5.2 per cent during the same period last year. Experts blame this slowdown on decline in coal production. According to economists construction, a prime reason for decline of cement demand, has been the weakest component of the GDP. The cement sector is hoping that these. figures are more likely because of the monsoon.Our cover story features Shree Cement, which has been named one of the 16 new sustainable champions in the world by the World Economic Forum and the Boston Consulting Group. It is a matter of pride that an Indian cement enterprise (another Indian winner is Suzlon) has won this accolade. The organisation deserves to be on the cover and their action needs to be emulated by one and all in the sector. We also feature Lafarge cement in spotlight and an interview with Umesh Shrivasthava, Executive Chairman of Holtec Consulting, apart from our regular features on technology, products, prices and stock update.Please send in your feedback/letters toeditorial@indiancementreview.com