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Shree Cement: The New Sustainability

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Champion 10 factors that helped it make the gradeThere is a reason for putting Shree Cement on the cover in this issue. For an industry much maligned for its environmental impact, it is always welcome when members of this sector are honoured for their ability to practice innovative business solutions with sustainable development activities. The World Economic Forum (WEF) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) by identifying and honouring Shree Cement as one of the 16 new Sustainability Champion Companies, has ensured that the sector will work even more zealously to earn more laurels for the sector.World Economic Forum (WEF) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have worked globally to identify New Sustainability Champion Companies that practice innovative business solutions with sustainable development objectives. As an initial part of this identification process, over 11 million projects / companies were screened. Following which, a few companies were further selected through a due diligence process, taking into consideration the sustainability aspect inculcated by them in their business. The top management personnel from around 200 of these short-listed companies were then engaged in a personal interview. They were interviewed on various related fields, considering their approach and work towards sustainability, innovation, scalability, geography and size. Based upon a detailed interview of Prashant Bangur, Executive Joint President of Shree Cement Limited (SCL), WEF identified SCL as one amongst 16 New World Sustainability Champions.Driving sustainabilityShree Cement inculcates sustainability in its business frame work based on the philosophy ‘Aah NA Bhadra: Kratavo Yantu Vishwatah’ (Let noble thought come to us from all over the world). The company’s sustainability policy aims to produce quality cement in in a socially responsible manner, with an eco-friendly, healthy and safe working environment approach, working toward continual improvement in the performance level."Our continual thirst to become steward in all spheres has led us to this reputed platform where we stand today," says Prashant Bangur, Executive Joint President of Shree Cement.The company has a 10-fold approach to ensure sustainability in all operations:Creativity and innovationShree Cement encourages its employees to think ‘Out of Box’, its "Jo Soche Wo Pave" scheme encouraged employees to provide innovative ideas and suggestions which are rewarded and communicated to spread the culture of innovative thinking."We believe that success comes through failure. Allowing failures encourage creative thinking and develop the attitude of creativity, risk taking and ultimately high performance," says Prashant Bangur.Employee creative ideas and innovations:

  • Developed synthetic gypsum to replace mineral gypsum for the first time in India.
  • Set a world record of commissioning a brown field clinkerization unit in a record time of 330 days.
  • Set a world record of commissioning a 46 MW of Waste Heat Recovery Based Green Power Plant in 17 months against the industry standard of 24 months.
  • Air lifted coal and raw mill from Germany to reduce the project execution time.
  • Installed the second largest waste heat recovery system in the world.

Resource and Energy ConservationA holistic view of Sustainability and care for the future generation through:

  • Conserving resources to ensure its availability for the future generation
  • Reducing emissions, cleaning environment and combating climate change

As an attempt to conserve fossil fuel, Shree Cement pioneered the use of petcoke as a replacement of fossil coal for the first time in India. Pet-coke has the properties of high sulphur, low volatile matter and harder grinding. Use of pet-coke came along with lots of constraints such as kiln jamming, low production and product quality but it also came as an opportunity to save precious fossil fuels. The company carried out extensive R&D and succeeded in pioneering its 100 per cent usage both in cement and power.Another initiative was to install India’s largest Air Cooled Condenser in its 2 X 150 MW power plant to replace the conventional water-cooled condensers, that ensured a current savings of 1 million KL water every year.One of the first process and cement manufacturing company in the world to obtain BS-EN 16001 Energy Management Certification, Shree Cement maintains one of lowest specific energy consumption for manufacturing its products.Environment FriendlinessThe company follows the philosophy of a Low Carbon Economy and work while following the maxim of clean and green is profitable. "They are members of various climate change initiatives like Cement Sustainability Initiative under the auspices of World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD)- Switzerland, GRI, TERI-BCSD etc.Waste UtilizationShree Cement began optimal use of fly ash in the cement manufacturing process in order to address the issues of fly ash disposal of power plants, while providing affordable cement to consumers and making planet better place. Use in cement makes the fly ash value added product thereby conserving limestone and fuels. The practice of using fly ash upto 35 per cent (which is maximum limit allowed by law), resulted in Shree Cement becoming the first cement manufacturing company in India to obtain CDM benefits for the same beginning July 2000.Similarly, the disposal of lead zinc slag was a serious problem for the zinc smelters. "However, our zeal to be opportunistic manufacturer provided us the threshold to utilise lead zinc slag, a waste of other industry thereby making us capable for laterite replacement from our operation. It also marked our "industrial ecologist" instinct. Besides, we have also demonstrated the use of agro-waste as a fuel replacement which is under validation for obtaining CDM benefits," says Prashant Bangur.The policy of Zero Disposals on LandMaintaining the lowest cost of production through:

  • Continual benchmarking with best achievements within Shree Cement and outside
  • Culture of challenging the established norms to find scope for further improvement
  • Focus on use of alternate raw material and fuels.

Empowering PeopleThe company empowers people by providing them with challenging roles, higher responsibilities, multi-skill jobs, faster career growth and healthy working practices; and encourage the youth.Engaging Local CommunityThe company promotes maximum employment from local community, in order to generate sustainable livelihood by assisting local community to engage in various livelihood creation activities. To ensure total prosperity in the community, it actively engages in initiatives focusing on infrastructure and water harvesting structure development, healthcare and women empowerment programs, educational awareness programs and plantation activities.Embracing New Technology"Our continuous focus is on technologies for enabling faster decisions through increasing speed and accuracy and releasing time which can be put to other productive uses," says Bangur. It is one of the first cement companies to implement ‘Operator Independent Truck Dispatch System’ at mines for automated truck dispatch. It also introduced remote surveillance system to track progress of projects on real time basis from office.Health and SafetyThe company’s facilities are certified to the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard. Committed to achieving its goal of becoming ‘Zero Accident Work Place’, Personal Protective Equipment is provided to all workers on the shop floor and their use is strictly enforced.Transparency and GovernanceThe company maintains an open door policy of inviting competitors and outsiders to visit its plants to interchange ideas. "We have highly analytical annual report covering detailed financial and non financial information. We are the first cement company to issue Corporate Sustainability Report based upon GRI guidelines," says Prashant Bangur.Successful implementation of some of the projects at SCL:-Thermal power plants have traditionally used Water Cooled Condenser (WCC) systems. Bearing in mind the location of our operations in one of India’s most water scarce regions, we operationalized the switch from a Water Cooled Condenser to Air Cooled Condenser system. Retrofitting of the old system to convert it to ACC was a challenging task requiring considerable skill; the retrofitting task was completed and the ACC was commissioned without any alignment problems.Implementation of air cooled condensers at its power plant in Beawar has enabled reduced water consumption by about 70 per cent.Waste heat utilization of Preheater & clinker coolerTwo major sources of heat rejection In a cement plant are pre-heater and clinker cooler hot gases. Waste heat recovery system installation in these two sources not only generates electricity also saves water for cooling down the gases. "Our earlier experience with the waste heat boiler in unit-I gave a strong background for installation of waste heat recovery system in other units with improved systems to generate electricity as well as to save the water used to cool down the gases," says Bangur. This has reduced water consumption by about 85 per cent in the power plant and 50 per cent in clinker production.

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Delhi to hold FCC’s India Roads Conference on 12th Oct

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To be hosted at Hotel Shangri-La Eros, New Delhi, the conference will witness more than 25 experts, policymakers, and industry leaders discussing innovative technologies, sustainable practices, and funding opportunities that promise to revolutionise the road construction landscape in India.

Mumbai (India)

FIRST Construction Council (FCC) – an infrastructure think tank – will be hosting the 13th India Roads Conference (IRC) on October 12, 2023 at Hotel Shangri-La Eros, New Delhi, to explore new opportunities in the road construction business. To be hosted as a part of India Construction Festival 2023 (ICF 2023) along with Construction World Global Awards 2023 (CWGA 2023) and Equipment India Awards 2023 (EI Awards 2023), IRC 2023 will focus on transforming India’s road infrastructure by presenting an unique platform for networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration. 

India’s road development sector is poised for unprecedented growth, housing one of the largest road networks in the world, spanning over 6.3 million km. The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) forecasts a substantial investment of Rs 111 trillion in infrastructure projects during fiscals 2020-25, with a a significant portion allocated to the road sector. Against this backdrop, the 13th India Roads Conference intends to discover the abundant market opportunities, the latest trends, and how the industry can capitalise on this thriving sector.

Renowned experts, policymakers, and industry leaders will converge to discuss innovative technologies, sustainable practices, and funding opportunities that promise to revolutionise the road construction landscape in India. Some of the confirmed speakers for IRC 2023 are Lt. General Harpal Singh, Former Engineer-In-Chief, Indian Army; Dr Manoranjan Parida, Director, CSIR-CRRI; Ajay Kumar Mishra, President, Dilip Buildcon; RK Pandey, Former Member Projects, NHAI & Former ADG, MoRTH; SK Nirmal, Secretary General, India Roads Congress; Premjit Singh, CEO – Transportation, Welspun Enterprises; TR Rao, Director (Infra), PNC Infratech; Hardik Agrawal, Director at Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon Pvt Ltd, Thumu Karthik, CEO, LivSYT (DevIndia Technologies); Pawan Kant, CEO, LTIDPL IndVIT Services Ltd (IM to IndInfraVIT Trust); and Palash Srivastava, CEO, IIFCL Projects among others.

The roadmap of the future

India currently has one of the largest road networks in the world, spanning over 6.3 million km. Of this, around 2 per cent are National Highways, 3 per cent are State Highways and the rest are part of the district and rural road network. Over 64.5 per cent of all goods and 90 per cent of passenger traffic move by road. 

India has seen significant growth in its road network over the last five years, as the government has given priority to this sector. For the financial year 2022-23, the Central budget allocated more than Rs 2.70 trillion to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The importance attached to the sector is also evinced by the fact that it accounts for approximately 18 per cent of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Various state governments are also developing critical road corridors as a catalyst of economic development. Lately the focus has been on road safety, green initiatives, digital transformation and augmentation of funding sources.

Explaining the significance of IRC 2023, Pratap Padode, President, FIRST Construction Council, said, “India, not China, has the second-largest road network in the world after the US, spanning about 63.32 lakh km. NHAI awarded total projects of 6,003 km with a value of Rs 1.26 trillion during FY23. A provisional target of constructing about 13,800 km has been set for 2023-24. This presents excellent opportunity for all the stakeholders in the sector. India Roads Conference 2023 will explore ways on how to build a robust, safe road network by using latest technologies while meeting environment norms.”

In line with the market trends, experts during the India Roads Conference 2023 will deliberate on following relevant topics:

  • Shaping regulations for safe and sustainable roads 
  • Revolutionising road construction with technology
  • Accelerating road infrastructure with better financing opportunities 
  • Safer roads: Innovative designs for enhanced safety 

Attendees can gain valuable insights from dynamic panel discussions, insightful keynotes, and cutting-edge innovation showcases. Thus, by participating in India Roads Conference 2023, delegates can stay ahead of industry trends, forge valuable partnerships, and contribute to building safer, greener, and more efficient road networks.

IRC 2023 is supported by Tiki Tar and Shell India (Silver Partner), Tata Hitachi (Equipment Partner), PNC Infratech Ltd (Associate Partner), and LivSYT (Technology Partner).

About India Construction Festival 2023

Organised by the FIRST Construction Council in collaboration with Construction World and Equipment India magazines, the 9th India Construction Festival (ICF) stands as a cornerstone in the construction and infrastructure industry. India Construction Festival serves as the single largest platform for celebrating India’s remarkable infrastructure journey, bringing together all stakeholders in the industry under one roof. This comprehensive approach fosters collaboration, facilitates knowledge sharing, and creates networking opportunities that are pivotal for the growth and development of India’s infrastructure sector. ICF 2023 will comprise three major events: 13th India Roads Conference, 11th Equipment India Awards and 21st Construction World Global Awards.

About FIRST Construction Council:

FIRST Construction Council (FCC), an infrastructure think tank established in 2003, focuses on providing the latest updates on the construction industry in India, and is dedicated to promoting its causes and needs. FCC provides a platform to promote the adoption of best practices and be the torchbearer for all policy initiatives that are needed to enhance the importance and welfare of the construction industry and the industry’s unified voice. FCC also hosts conferences/events like India Construction FestivalMetro Rail ConferenceInfrastructure Today Conclave 2023, etc.

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Concrete

Assessing the Role of Branding

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ICR looks at differentiating factors that influence the branding decisions for cement companies and the impact of messaging and brand positioning on the customer’s mindset.

Branding gurus will say that the purpose and intentionality of branding is to create an image in the minds of the consumers and the connected community at large, which could be much more than the mere product on offer (with its features and characteristics). The image, once firmly entrenched in the minds of the interested people, would augur well to create a sense of trust and loyalty, the hallmark of connectedness with the ‘idea’ that exceeds the sum total of what the product offers. This trust, loyalty or the bond establishment is at the core of creation of a brand as an asset that would provide cash flows many years into the future. If one wants to measure the value of a brand, one would need to look at the net present value of future cash flows that the brand-asset would end up coalescing, which could only happen when the right actions are directed to ward off competition and a stability is provided to the continuing engagement with the final consumer, either directly or in conjunction with various intermediaries.
Some of this would simply flow from the community to which the customer is part of. In the case of cement, this starts from the building and construction engineers, the architects, masons, builders, dealers, channel partners, partners in the community, which could include the government and regulatory agencies as well, where the product in question is being used. The place could eventually become part of the greater whole, the region or the country, if the product is integrated into a large bundle of choices put into one that transcends the locale.
Product positioning If we want to direct our attention into cement branding, we can hardly ignore the fact that cement remains a commodity, which by definition means that differentiation possibilities are minimal.
Harold Hotelling’s paper, Similarities in Competition (1929) for products that are commodities, gave us the mathematical proof that in markets for selling such products, one would see them being sold as close to each other as possible. This explains why in local markets you have commodity sellers like vegetable sellers or fish-sellers selling in the same place, sitting next to each other, side by side and not far apart from each other. This is because the customers would want to minimise the cost of logistics (the cost of connecting becomes the only differentiating factor, which the customers want to minimise).
The exact opposite of this would be when two dis-similar items are to be sold that are highly differentiated. The proof of this is provided in Jean Tirole’s seminal book, Industrial Organization, the ‘position’ of these two selling items will be as far apart from each other as possible. Here, the cost of connecting is where the maximum differentiation will lie and that is going to be the pivotal factor in making the two items dis-similar from each other.
Thus, creating a unique value proposition in a commodity would be to make that commodity appear as a different identity when compared with a similar commodity. This identity cannot be simply the product features, attributes or specification, but an identity built on an idea that makes a unique connection with the consumer.

Leading by example
How on earth could we create a unique value proposition through branding of this commodity? That is where cement branding has been the most successful model among almost all commodities.
But cement is lucky in some respects as it can be packaged and once you package it, what is inside loses its meaning and what you end up seeing is the package that can be used to replace the product inside. The package assumes the identity of the product, no matter how similar or dissimilar what is inside, one could end up creating an image of what you want the ‘interested party’ to believe it to be. This could be a way of initiating the branding exercise in cement, or what we call the ‘tip of the iceberg’, which is in the packaging of the product. But we will see that it is a very small part of what the total brand is all about.
Furthermore, trust can only be established over not one but many transactions that look at the value that stems from painstakingly creating the ever-expanding pie of the future. This is no splash in the pan, but a continued engagement that must rely on all signals that the people on both sides would be happy to be a part of.

Making the message work
Cement brands, no matter how different they are, have been able to create their unique value proposition or niche in the market. You have some leaders in the Indian market that built their brand on the appeal it creates on the engineers, architects, masons and the builders; they are the community who will influence the bulk of the buying of cement. With taglines ranging from the ‘Engineer’s Choice’ and ‘Giant Compressive Strength’ to ‘Cementing Relationships,’ and with the central idea of trust as a theme, the brands have evolved to dominate their own individual space. The continuity of the messaging and complementing such themes with actions on the ground, building partnerships that resonate on these themes is where these brands have progressed and prospered.
Messaging to the consumer on the product quality, durability and strength have been the dominant theme among the local communities. These have remained the final conversation that cannot be avoided when the eventual buyer, the individual house owner and the builder combine to make the final choice with the influencers of all kinds. Consistent messaging that lives up to the expectation and stays with the combine when the product is in use for many more years, would be the foundation to build on. But these may not be the only messaging, as prices could become the bone of contention, sparking messaging like ‘Not Cheap’, stating that the perception could be wrong about the value of the product.
Some brands have got rebranded, for example Grasim got merged with L&T Cement and came up with their overarching value proposition to be the ‘Engineer’s Choice’, a path-breaking branding that has catapulted them to the top of the league. But making the company and its values be aligned to the messaging is where the actual scoring happens. The customer’s trust stems from the overall experience of buying that is weighed against the sum total of promises made and the actual experience tallied against them. It would be wrong to appeal to some specific attributes while strengthening your brand, you could dilute the attention required on every other aspect that you hold the promise to.

Influencing the customer
The economic impact of a brand, simply summarised, would be the effect of the brand in the customer’s buying decision. The customer in this case is just not the buyer, which could be different in different cases, but a whole lot of influencers – from institutions, government, community, the common home buyer, builder, architect or the engineer or the dealers, the effect of the brand must be looked at in all these constituencies. Building trust on such a wide group of people cannot be made with just messaging alone. It can only be built through long hard work on all the aspects we just discussed, where quality of product and service, packaging, price, tradition, delivery on promise, all could play a
vital role.

-Procyon Mukherjee

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Economy & Market

Impactful Branding

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Advertising or branding is never about driving sales. It’s about creating brand awareness and recall. It’s about conveying the core values of your brand to your consumers. In this context, why is branding important for cement companies? As far as the customers are concerned cement is simply cement. It is precisely for this reason that branding, marketing and advertising of cement becomes crucial. Since the customer is unable to differentiate between the shades of grey, the onus of creating this awareness is carried by the brands. That explains the heavy marketing budgets, celebrity-centric commercials, emotion-invoking taglines and campaigns enunciating the many benefits of their offerings.
Marketing strategies of cement companies have undergone gradual transformation owing to the change in consumer behaviour. While TV commercials are high on humour and emotions to establish a fast connect with the customer, social media campaigns are focussed more on capturing the consumer’s attention in an over-crowded virtual world. Branding for cement companies has become a holistic growth strategy with quantifiable results. This has made brands opt for a mix package of traditional and new-age tools, such as social media. However, the hero of every marketing communication is the message, which encapsulates the unique selling points of the product. That after all is crux of the matter here.
While cement companies are effectively using marketing tools to reach out to the consumers, they need to strengthen the four Cs of the branding process – Consumer, Cost, Communication and Convenience. Putting up the right message, at the right time and at the right place for the right kind of customer demographic is of utmost importance in the long run. It is precisely for this reason that regional players are likely to have an upper hand as they rely on local language and cultural references to drive home the point. But modern marketing and branding domain is exponentially growing and it would be an interesting exercise to tabulate and analyse its impact on branding for cement.

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Shree Cement: The New Sustainability

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Champion 10 factors that helped it make the gradeThere is a reason for putting Shree Cement on the cover in this issue. For an industry much maligned for its environmental impact, it is always welcome when members of this sector are honoured for their ability to practice innovative business solutions with sustainable development activities. The World Economic Forum (WEF) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) by identifying and honouring Shree Cement as one of the 16 new Sustainability Champion Companies, has ensured that the sector will work even more zealously to earn more laurels for the sector.World Economic Forum (WEF) and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have worked globally to identify New Sustainability Champion Companies that practice innovative business solutions with sustainable development objectives. As an initial part of this identification process, over 11 million projects / companies were screened. Following which, a few companies were further selected through a due diligence process, taking into consideration the sustainability aspect inculcated by them in their business. The top management personnel from around 200 of these short-listed companies were then engaged in a personal interview. They were interviewed on various related fields, considering their approach and work towards sustainability, innovation, scalability, geography and size. Based upon a detailed interview of Prashant Bangur, Executive Joint President of Shree Cement Limited (SCL), WEF identified SCL as one amongst 16 New World Sustainability Champions.Driving sustainabilityShree Cement inculcates sustainability in its business frame work based on the philosophy ‘Aah NA Bhadra: Kratavo Yantu Vishwatah’ (Let noble thought come to us from all over the world). The company’s sustainability policy aims to produce quality cement in in a socially responsible manner, with an eco-friendly, healthy and safe working environment approach, working toward continual improvement in the performance level."Our continual thirst to become steward in all spheres has led us to this reputed platform where we stand today," says Prashant Bangur, Executive Joint President of Shree Cement.The company has a 10-fold approach to ensure sustainability in all operations:Creativity and innovationShree Cement encourages its employees to think ‘Out of Box’, its "Jo Soche Wo Pave" scheme encouraged employees to provide innovative ideas and suggestions which are rewarded and communicated to spread the culture of innovative thinking."We believe that success comes through failure. Allowing failures encourage creative thinking and develop the attitude of creativity, risk taking and ultimately high performance," says Prashant Bangur.Employee creative ideas and innovations:

  • Developed synthetic gypsum to replace mineral gypsum for the first time in India.
  • Set a world record of commissioning a brown field clinkerization unit in a record time of 330 days.
  • Set a world record of commissioning a 46 MW of Waste Heat Recovery Based Green Power Plant in 17 months against the industry standard of 24 months.
  • Air lifted coal and raw mill from Germany to reduce the project execution time.
  • Installed the second largest waste heat recovery system in the world.

Resource and Energy ConservationA holistic view of Sustainability and care for the future generation through:

  • Conserving resources to ensure its availability for the future generation
  • Reducing emissions, cleaning environment and combating climate change

As an attempt to conserve fossil fuel, Shree Cement pioneered the use of petcoke as a replacement of fossil coal for the first time in India. Pet-coke has the properties of high sulphur, low volatile matter and harder grinding. Use of pet-coke came along with lots of constraints such as kiln jamming, low production and product quality but it also came as an opportunity to save precious fossil fuels. The company carried out extensive R&D and succeeded in pioneering its 100 per cent usage both in cement and power.Another initiative was to install India’s largest Air Cooled Condenser in its 2 X 150 MW power plant to replace the conventional water-cooled condensers, that ensured a current savings of 1 million KL water every year.One of the first process and cement manufacturing company in the world to obtain BS-EN 16001 Energy Management Certification, Shree Cement maintains one of lowest specific energy consumption for manufacturing its products.Environment FriendlinessThe company follows the philosophy of a Low Carbon Economy and work while following the maxim of clean and green is profitable. "They are members of various climate change initiatives like Cement Sustainability Initiative under the auspices of World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD)- Switzerland, GRI, TERI-BCSD etc.Waste UtilizationShree Cement began optimal use of fly ash in the cement manufacturing process in order to address the issues of fly ash disposal of power plants, while providing affordable cement to consumers and making planet better place. Use in cement makes the fly ash value added product thereby conserving limestone and fuels. The practice of using fly ash upto 35 per cent (which is maximum limit allowed by law), resulted in Shree Cement becoming the first cement manufacturing company in India to obtain CDM benefits for the same beginning July 2000.Similarly, the disposal of lead zinc slag was a serious problem for the zinc smelters. "However, our zeal to be opportunistic manufacturer provided us the threshold to utilise lead zinc slag, a waste of other industry thereby making us capable for laterite replacement from our operation. It also marked our "industrial ecologist" instinct. Besides, we have also demonstrated the use of agro-waste as a fuel replacement which is under validation for obtaining CDM benefits," says Prashant Bangur.The policy of Zero Disposals on LandMaintaining the lowest cost of production through:

  • Continual benchmarking with best achievements within Shree Cement and outside
  • Culture of challenging the established norms to find scope for further improvement
  • Focus on use of alternate raw material and fuels.

Empowering PeopleThe company empowers people by providing them with challenging roles, higher responsibilities, multi-skill jobs, faster career growth and healthy working practices; and encourage the youth.Engaging Local CommunityThe company promotes maximum employment from local community, in order to generate sustainable livelihood by assisting local community to engage in various livelihood creation activities. To ensure total prosperity in the community, it actively engages in initiatives focusing on infrastructure and water harvesting structure development, healthcare and women empowerment programs, educational awareness programs and plantation activities.Embracing New Technology"Our continuous focus is on technologies for enabling faster decisions through increasing speed and accuracy and releasing time which can be put to other productive uses," says Bangur. It is one of the first cement companies to implement ‘Operator Independent Truck Dispatch System’ at mines for automated truck dispatch. It also introduced remote surveillance system to track progress of projects on real time basis from office.Health and SafetyThe company’s facilities are certified to the OHSAS 18001:2007 standard. Committed to achieving its goal of becoming ‘Zero Accident Work Place’, Personal Protective Equipment is provided to all workers on the shop floor and their use is strictly enforced.Transparency and GovernanceThe company maintains an open door policy of inviting competitors and outsiders to visit its plants to interchange ideas. "We have highly analytical annual report covering detailed financial and non financial information. We are the first cement company to issue Corporate Sustainability Report based upon GRI guidelines," says Prashant Bangur.Successful implementation of some of the projects at SCL:-Thermal power plants have traditionally used Water Cooled Condenser (WCC) systems. Bearing in mind the location of our operations in one of India’s most water scarce regions, we operationalized the switch from a Water Cooled Condenser to Air Cooled Condenser system. Retrofitting of the old system to convert it to ACC was a challenging task requiring considerable skill; the retrofitting task was completed and the ACC was commissioned without any alignment problems.Implementation of air cooled condensers at its power plant in Beawar has enabled reduced water consumption by about 70 per cent.Waste heat utilization of Preheater & clinker coolerTwo major sources of heat rejection In a cement plant are pre-heater and clinker cooler hot gases. Waste heat recovery system installation in these two sources not only generates electricity also saves water for cooling down the gases. "Our earlier experience with the waste heat boiler in unit-I gave a strong background for installation of waste heat recovery system in other units with improved systems to generate electricity as well as to save the water used to cool down the gases," says Bangur. This has reduced water consumption by about 85 per cent in the power plant and 50 per cent in clinker production.

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Delhi to hold FCC’s India Roads Conference on 12th Oct

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To be hosted at Hotel Shangri-La Eros, New Delhi, the conference will witness more than 25 experts, policymakers, and industry leaders discussing innovative technologies, sustainable practices, and funding opportunities that promise to revolutionise the road construction landscape in India.

Mumbai (India)

FIRST Construction Council (FCC) – an infrastructure think tank – will be hosting the 13th India Roads Conference (IRC) on October 12, 2023 at Hotel Shangri-La Eros, New Delhi, to explore new opportunities in the road construction business. To be hosted as a part of India Construction Festival 2023 (ICF 2023) along with Construction World Global Awards 2023 (CWGA 2023) and Equipment India Awards 2023 (EI Awards 2023), IRC 2023 will focus on transforming India’s road infrastructure by presenting an unique platform for networking, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration. 

India’s road development sector is poised for unprecedented growth, housing one of the largest road networks in the world, spanning over 6.3 million km. The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) forecasts a substantial investment of Rs 111 trillion in infrastructure projects during fiscals 2020-25, with a a significant portion allocated to the road sector. Against this backdrop, the 13th India Roads Conference intends to discover the abundant market opportunities, the latest trends, and how the industry can capitalise on this thriving sector.

Renowned experts, policymakers, and industry leaders will converge to discuss innovative technologies, sustainable practices, and funding opportunities that promise to revolutionise the road construction landscape in India. Some of the confirmed speakers for IRC 2023 are Lt. General Harpal Singh, Former Engineer-In-Chief, Indian Army; Dr Manoranjan Parida, Director, CSIR-CRRI; Ajay Kumar Mishra, President, Dilip Buildcon; RK Pandey, Former Member Projects, NHAI & Former ADG, MoRTH; SK Nirmal, Secretary General, India Roads Congress; Premjit Singh, CEO – Transportation, Welspun Enterprises; TR Rao, Director (Infra), PNC Infratech; Hardik Agrawal, Director at Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon Pvt Ltd, Thumu Karthik, CEO, LivSYT (DevIndia Technologies); Pawan Kant, CEO, LTIDPL IndVIT Services Ltd (IM to IndInfraVIT Trust); and Palash Srivastava, CEO, IIFCL Projects among others.

The roadmap of the future

India currently has one of the largest road networks in the world, spanning over 6.3 million km. Of this, around 2 per cent are National Highways, 3 per cent are State Highways and the rest are part of the district and rural road network. Over 64.5 per cent of all goods and 90 per cent of passenger traffic move by road. 

India has seen significant growth in its road network over the last five years, as the government has given priority to this sector. For the financial year 2022-23, the Central budget allocated more than Rs 2.70 trillion to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). The importance attached to the sector is also evinced by the fact that it accounts for approximately 18 per cent of the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). Various state governments are also developing critical road corridors as a catalyst of economic development. Lately the focus has been on road safety, green initiatives, digital transformation and augmentation of funding sources.

Explaining the significance of IRC 2023, Pratap Padode, President, FIRST Construction Council, said, “India, not China, has the second-largest road network in the world after the US, spanning about 63.32 lakh km. NHAI awarded total projects of 6,003 km with a value of Rs 1.26 trillion during FY23. A provisional target of constructing about 13,800 km has been set for 2023-24. This presents excellent opportunity for all the stakeholders in the sector. India Roads Conference 2023 will explore ways on how to build a robust, safe road network by using latest technologies while meeting environment norms.”

In line with the market trends, experts during the India Roads Conference 2023 will deliberate on following relevant topics:

  • Shaping regulations for safe and sustainable roads 
  • Revolutionising road construction with technology
  • Accelerating road infrastructure with better financing opportunities 
  • Safer roads: Innovative designs for enhanced safety 

Attendees can gain valuable insights from dynamic panel discussions, insightful keynotes, and cutting-edge innovation showcases. Thus, by participating in India Roads Conference 2023, delegates can stay ahead of industry trends, forge valuable partnerships, and contribute to building safer, greener, and more efficient road networks.

IRC 2023 is supported by Tiki Tar and Shell India (Silver Partner), Tata Hitachi (Equipment Partner), PNC Infratech Ltd (Associate Partner), and LivSYT (Technology Partner).

About India Construction Festival 2023

Organised by the FIRST Construction Council in collaboration with Construction World and Equipment India magazines, the 9th India Construction Festival (ICF) stands as a cornerstone in the construction and infrastructure industry. India Construction Festival serves as the single largest platform for celebrating India’s remarkable infrastructure journey, bringing together all stakeholders in the industry under one roof. This comprehensive approach fosters collaboration, facilitates knowledge sharing, and creates networking opportunities that are pivotal for the growth and development of India’s infrastructure sector. ICF 2023 will comprise three major events: 13th India Roads Conference, 11th Equipment India Awards and 21st Construction World Global Awards.

About FIRST Construction Council:

FIRST Construction Council (FCC), an infrastructure think tank established in 2003, focuses on providing the latest updates on the construction industry in India, and is dedicated to promoting its causes and needs. FCC provides a platform to promote the adoption of best practices and be the torchbearer for all policy initiatives that are needed to enhance the importance and welfare of the construction industry and the industry’s unified voice. FCC also hosts conferences/events like India Construction FestivalMetro Rail ConferenceInfrastructure Today Conclave 2023, etc.

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Concrete

Assessing the Role of Branding

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ICR looks at differentiating factors that influence the branding decisions for cement companies and the impact of messaging and brand positioning on the customer’s mindset.

Branding gurus will say that the purpose and intentionality of branding is to create an image in the minds of the consumers and the connected community at large, which could be much more than the mere product on offer (with its features and characteristics). The image, once firmly entrenched in the minds of the interested people, would augur well to create a sense of trust and loyalty, the hallmark of connectedness with the ‘idea’ that exceeds the sum total of what the product offers. This trust, loyalty or the bond establishment is at the core of creation of a brand as an asset that would provide cash flows many years into the future. If one wants to measure the value of a brand, one would need to look at the net present value of future cash flows that the brand-asset would end up coalescing, which could only happen when the right actions are directed to ward off competition and a stability is provided to the continuing engagement with the final consumer, either directly or in conjunction with various intermediaries.
Some of this would simply flow from the community to which the customer is part of. In the case of cement, this starts from the building and construction engineers, the architects, masons, builders, dealers, channel partners, partners in the community, which could include the government and regulatory agencies as well, where the product in question is being used. The place could eventually become part of the greater whole, the region or the country, if the product is integrated into a large bundle of choices put into one that transcends the locale.
Product positioning If we want to direct our attention into cement branding, we can hardly ignore the fact that cement remains a commodity, which by definition means that differentiation possibilities are minimal.
Harold Hotelling’s paper, Similarities in Competition (1929) for products that are commodities, gave us the mathematical proof that in markets for selling such products, one would see them being sold as close to each other as possible. This explains why in local markets you have commodity sellers like vegetable sellers or fish-sellers selling in the same place, sitting next to each other, side by side and not far apart from each other. This is because the customers would want to minimise the cost of logistics (the cost of connecting becomes the only differentiating factor, which the customers want to minimise).
The exact opposite of this would be when two dis-similar items are to be sold that are highly differentiated. The proof of this is provided in Jean Tirole’s seminal book, Industrial Organization, the ‘position’ of these two selling items will be as far apart from each other as possible. Here, the cost of connecting is where the maximum differentiation will lie and that is going to be the pivotal factor in making the two items dis-similar from each other.
Thus, creating a unique value proposition in a commodity would be to make that commodity appear as a different identity when compared with a similar commodity. This identity cannot be simply the product features, attributes or specification, but an identity built on an idea that makes a unique connection with the consumer.

Leading by example
How on earth could we create a unique value proposition through branding of this commodity? That is where cement branding has been the most successful model among almost all commodities.
But cement is lucky in some respects as it can be packaged and once you package it, what is inside loses its meaning and what you end up seeing is the package that can be used to replace the product inside. The package assumes the identity of the product, no matter how similar or dissimilar what is inside, one could end up creating an image of what you want the ‘interested party’ to believe it to be. This could be a way of initiating the branding exercise in cement, or what we call the ‘tip of the iceberg’, which is in the packaging of the product. But we will see that it is a very small part of what the total brand is all about.
Furthermore, trust can only be established over not one but many transactions that look at the value that stems from painstakingly creating the ever-expanding pie of the future. This is no splash in the pan, but a continued engagement that must rely on all signals that the people on both sides would be happy to be a part of.

Making the message work
Cement brands, no matter how different they are, have been able to create their unique value proposition or niche in the market. You have some leaders in the Indian market that built their brand on the appeal it creates on the engineers, architects, masons and the builders; they are the community who will influence the bulk of the buying of cement. With taglines ranging from the ‘Engineer’s Choice’ and ‘Giant Compressive Strength’ to ‘Cementing Relationships,’ and with the central idea of trust as a theme, the brands have evolved to dominate their own individual space. The continuity of the messaging and complementing such themes with actions on the ground, building partnerships that resonate on these themes is where these brands have progressed and prospered.
Messaging to the consumer on the product quality, durability and strength have been the dominant theme among the local communities. These have remained the final conversation that cannot be avoided when the eventual buyer, the individual house owner and the builder combine to make the final choice with the influencers of all kinds. Consistent messaging that lives up to the expectation and stays with the combine when the product is in use for many more years, would be the foundation to build on. But these may not be the only messaging, as prices could become the bone of contention, sparking messaging like ‘Not Cheap’, stating that the perception could be wrong about the value of the product.
Some brands have got rebranded, for example Grasim got merged with L&T Cement and came up with their overarching value proposition to be the ‘Engineer’s Choice’, a path-breaking branding that has catapulted them to the top of the league. But making the company and its values be aligned to the messaging is where the actual scoring happens. The customer’s trust stems from the overall experience of buying that is weighed against the sum total of promises made and the actual experience tallied against them. It would be wrong to appeal to some specific attributes while strengthening your brand, you could dilute the attention required on every other aspect that you hold the promise to.

Influencing the customer
The economic impact of a brand, simply summarised, would be the effect of the brand in the customer’s buying decision. The customer in this case is just not the buyer, which could be different in different cases, but a whole lot of influencers – from institutions, government, community, the common home buyer, builder, architect or the engineer or the dealers, the effect of the brand must be looked at in all these constituencies. Building trust on such a wide group of people cannot be made with just messaging alone. It can only be built through long hard work on all the aspects we just discussed, where quality of product and service, packaging, price, tradition, delivery on promise, all could play a
vital role.

-Procyon Mukherjee

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Economy & Market

Impactful Branding

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Advertising or branding is never about driving sales. It’s about creating brand awareness and recall. It’s about conveying the core values of your brand to your consumers. In this context, why is branding important for cement companies? As far as the customers are concerned cement is simply cement. It is precisely for this reason that branding, marketing and advertising of cement becomes crucial. Since the customer is unable to differentiate between the shades of grey, the onus of creating this awareness is carried by the brands. That explains the heavy marketing budgets, celebrity-centric commercials, emotion-invoking taglines and campaigns enunciating the many benefits of their offerings.
Marketing strategies of cement companies have undergone gradual transformation owing to the change in consumer behaviour. While TV commercials are high on humour and emotions to establish a fast connect with the customer, social media campaigns are focussed more on capturing the consumer’s attention in an over-crowded virtual world. Branding for cement companies has become a holistic growth strategy with quantifiable results. This has made brands opt for a mix package of traditional and new-age tools, such as social media. However, the hero of every marketing communication is the message, which encapsulates the unique selling points of the product. That after all is crux of the matter here.
While cement companies are effectively using marketing tools to reach out to the consumers, they need to strengthen the four Cs of the branding process – Consumer, Cost, Communication and Convenience. Putting up the right message, at the right time and at the right place for the right kind of customer demographic is of utmost importance in the long run. It is precisely for this reason that regional players are likely to have an upper hand as they rely on local language and cultural references to drive home the point. But modern marketing and branding domain is exponentially growing and it would be an interesting exercise to tabulate and analyse its impact on branding for cement.

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