Aryabrat Ghosh,
Head – Cement Grinding Aids and Additives, Chryso India.
Paris headquartered Chryso is an industry specialist in the construction chemicals market and has presence in over 30 countries. In India we are present through our local subsidiary Chryso India and have three business verticals here ? concrete admixtures, construction system and Cement grinding aids. Aryabrat Ghosh who heads the cement grinding aids and additives at Chryso India, shares his views with ICR. Excerpts from the interview…
What is the typical size of the market of cement additives?
Indian cement grinding aid business is roughly around Rs 200-250 crore per annum and is growing at the rate of 15-20 per cent per year with Chryso managing a major share of the market. The future for the business looks very lucrative since we are seeing a steady rise in the usage pattern of cement grinding aids.
As the sector is very product performance oriented it is not highly fragmented. Indian cement additives market has about 20-25 players out of which 8-10 are multinationals. We also have few small scale companies which are also operating at local levels, but they are not very effective and have limited impact.
Brief us on your product range.
We have a huge portfolio of products for cement manufacturers and they can be broadly classified as: products which increase the productivity of raw mill, products to aid in cement grinding, products to increase cement strength, and products to increase productivity of VRM and ball mill. If we had to make a rough estimate about the consumer buying sentiment in the market for grinding aids, then about 70 per cent of buyers use our products to increase the fly ash or slag content in the cement, while 25 per cent of buyers use our products to increase productivity. We sell solutions not product so the product range is dependent on the problem customer is facing.
At what stage the additive is introduced in the system and in what format?
In the normal process, we have the clinkers, fly ash and gypsum added into the mill through the inlet. The additives are also added at the same time, and it does not require any separate process or special equipments to handle the additives. Chryso solutions are all liquid. This greatly assists the dosing of our solutions as much more accurate than powder addition.
What is the effect on the mortar strength of cement? What is the effect on concrete?
If we are referring to activators then we see an improvement in either early or late age strength, and we even have new technology that can enhance both early and late age. Mortar strengths behave in the same correlation to concrete and a good first stage for micro mixes to see the potential in concrete.
Indicate the improvements on fly ash / slag absorption in terms of clinker factor? The opportunity for activators
on clinker factor is significant and can have vast potential for the cement producer not only on environmental impact but also on cost reduction if through the use of activators we can increase SCM by five per cent.