Economy & Market

Priming Premium Brands

Published

7 years ago

January 6, 2019

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All the major players are jumping on to the bandwagon of "Premium Brands" in order to reap benefits they offer viz. pricing power and profitability.

Unless cement companies show value in their products or services, cement will be continued to be looked upon as a commodity and it will not enjoy any premium or preference. So, a lot of cement companies have launched premium brands under their umbrella to tap premium clientele, which imparts them better pricing power and boost profitability.

The three basic characteristics of premium brands of cement are consistency and superior quality and technology. Thus, premium brands command customer attention through breakthrough technologies that improves the performance of cement, and offer additional benefits of higher initial strength, better workability and spread, increased durability, corrosion resistance and low heat of hydration properties.

Premium brands promise to deliver better value over and above normal cement. In cement, the first attribute of a premium brand is "consistency", which plays a very important role in branding. The next is "superior quality", which is guaranteed throughout the year and in every bag. It is followed by technical services on the ground. Cement being a highly-technical product, there is a lot of technology and standard procedures to be followed in case of premium or value added products, on which masons and others users should be appraised of. These are the benchmarks followed by Bharati Cement since inception, with the catch line "Three times better".

Value added
"While most brands choose to focus primarily on (clichTd) product features like strength and trust; each brand in the Nuvoco portfolio is clearly distinguished on either product propositions or unique consumer benefits," says Madhumita Basu, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, Nuvoco Vistas. She has cited the example of Void Reduction Technology (VRT), which strengthens a structure from within and increases its longevity, is a differentiating factor for Duraguard.

Nuvoco started its brand building journey since its inception in 1999. Concreto, today, is a "Gold Standard" for slag cement in the markets where it is available, consistently delivering the highest brand equity in the category over the last decade. Concreto has its "5 Star Advantage" that translates into unique consumer benefits, and enables the users to construct "good homes" that reflect their value system in life, the company claims.

Dalmia Cement, the country’s fourth largest producer of cement, launched its first premium brand, Dalmia DSP Cement in the year 2016. "Dalmia DSP is a specialised, one-of-its-kind offering specifically engineered for concreting or "Dhalai",’ says Ujjwal Batria, COO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat). As claimed by the company, the advantages that the product offers include – Gives durable construction, optimizes setting time, anti-corrosive denser cement, better coverage and high yield of concrete, and finally, it comes in an innovative BOPP tamper proof and shower resistant packaging.

Bharathi has launched a value added product Bharati Ultrafast in the blended cement category. Technically, blended cements are far superior because of low heat of hydration, leading to dense concrete, with a fast setting ability.

JK Cement has recently added a premium grey cement product to its portfolio – JK Super Strong – that is manufactured with MPET – a new breakthrough technology in cement production that improves the performance of cement.

Building blocks
Establishing a brand is a matter of building, communicating and delivering on a promise to consumers. This can take many years whether product is Cement or in any other product category. The costs of creating a premium brand is typically high in the initial years, mainly in the form of launch expenses and sustained marketing communication.

"Our premium products meet the discerning needs of the customer and delivers on a set of customer benefits which lead to customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy of the brand. This in turn propels growth and increase in market share," says Batria.

Strength is the cement category truth and many brands have tried communicating strength in various ways."However, at Nuvoco, we have focussed on product attributes which helps the consumers to view our product offering uniquely. For instance, the PPC category has less molecular gaps as compared to other types of cement. In sharing this insight with our customers; we communicate that our Duraguard cement has VRT, which strengthens structures from within and increases their longevity by making concrete impenetrable. This works as a Reason to Believe (RTB)," says Basu. "We do not look at a range in terms of "Premium Brands". Our endeavour is to understand customer needs and develop the right value added products and solutions for him. We refer to this range as Value Added Products (VAP) and Expert Care Solution (ECS)," Basu adds.

Transition
There are several mergers and acquisitions that have taken place in the cement industry over the years leading to transition or assimilation of brands into the acquirer company, the major examples being UltraTech Cement, Dalmia Cement and Nuvoco. UltraTech embarked on a branding journey after the acquisition of L&T Cement in 2004 and have ever since integrated new acquisitions under a single brand. Its recent acquisition is Binani Cement, through NCLT process.

"We had a strong brand in Tamil Nadu and Kerala by the name of"Vajram". We have successfully transitioned this brand to Dalmia Cement in the recent past, without disrupting the market at all. This has been possible due to proper communication to channel partners, influencers and end consumers," says Batria.

Nuvoco underwent a transition from Lafarge a couple of years ago. The name Lafarge had a brand equity that had been built over a period of time. "During our transition, we were careful to ensure that the values and goodwill that was associated with our legacy name continued to the new organisation. A well defined four step process was chalked out – embrace change, scenario building and planning, deconstructing the brand DNA, and D-Day Planning and Execution," says Basu. The names of the cement products did not change, which helped in maintaining the continuity.

Despite arguments that cement is a "commodity" getting louder, the industry veterans still feel that the argument was only a myth and that branding will remain a reality in the industry going ahead whether it is in case of bagged cement or bulk cement, including ready mix concrete (RMC).

Economy & Market

TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race

Published

5 days ago

April 27, 2026

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Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology

India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.

According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.

Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.

The Regulatory Push Is Real

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.

Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.

Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem

Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.

The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.

Engineering a Made-in-India Answer

At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.

Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.

Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.

The Investment Case Is Now

The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.

The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.

The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.

The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.

About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.

Concrete

WCA Welcomes SiloConnect as associate corporate member

Published

3 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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The World Cement Association (WCA) has announced SiloConnect as its newest associate corporate member, expanding its network of technology providers supporting digitalisation in the cement industry. SiloConnect offers smart sensor technology that provides real-time visibility of cement inventory levels at customer silos, enabling producers to monitor stock remotely and plan deliveries more efficiently. The solution helps companies move from reactive to proactive logistics, improving delivery planning, operational efficiency and safety by reducing manual inspections. The technology is already used by major cement producers such as Holcim, Cemex and Heidelberg Materials and is deployed across more than 30 countries worldwide.

Concrete

TotalEnergies and Holcim Launch Floating Solar Plant in Belgium

Published

3 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

admin

TotalEnergies and Holcim have commissioned a floating solar power plant in Obourg, Belgium, built on a rehabilitated former chalk quarry that has been converted into a lake. The project has a generation capacity of 31 MW and produces around 30 GWh of renewable electricity annually, which will be used to power Holcim’s nearby industrial operations. The project is currently the largest floating solar installation in Europe dedicated entirely to industrial self-consumption. To ensure minimal impact on the surrounding landscape, more than 700 metres of horizontal directional drilling were used to connect the solar installation to the electrical substation. The project reflects ongoing collaboration between the two companies to support industrial decarbonisation through renewable energy solutions and innovative infrastructure development.