Economy & Market

Developing economies & response to pandemic

Published

6 years ago

January 9, 2020

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In these unprecedented times of COVID-19, the health impact coupled with the economic headwinds, leaves many of the developing economies vulnerable, but some are coping with the impact better than the others; those that are doing better have firstly a robust primary health care system that is able to take the additional impact of health "overload" and coupled to that they have a close knit localised "controlled" programme of identifying, isolating and providing affordable health care which forms the backbone of the recovery. More importantly, these economies have been able to find traction between a ‘central’ (larger) outlook on response with the "local" administration of the response, health and economic included.

Emerging and developing economies have several contending issues at hand, sharp drop in trade and tourism, dampened capital flows, much tighter credit conditions, ebbing remittances and of course a debt pile that blunts the fiscal expansion prospects. A few of them have to still solve banking woes, stemming from NPAs and some of the sectors to which the banking system owes its loans to have slowed due to lack of demand.

East Asia is now slated to grow at a scant 0.5 per cent, South Asia will contract by 2.7 per cent, Sub-Saharan Africa by 2.8 per cent, Middle East and North Africa by 4.2 per cent, Central Asia by 4.7 per cent and Latin America by 7.2 per cent.

These were the last numbers from the World Bank (June 2020). Are there some success stories within these grim tales, some stand out like Vietnam or Indonesia while India has been able to keep the mortality rates very low, which is also commendable. Vietnam has dealt with the pandemic with exemplary dexterity by eliminating the spreading roots, while Indonesia has taken a twin program of fighting the pandemic together with focus on job creation.

Vietnam’s first case was reported in early January’20 but in no time the country was ready with a comprehensive plan to respond to the health crisis, first with a proactive plan on "target testing" with three degrees of "contact tracing" for each positive case with large Government centers providing quarantining arrangements and in no time the borders were closed for all foreigners. With the full experience of SARS, Vietnam had the infrastructure and the processes fully tried and tested but its vibrant primary health infrastructure had enormous room to expand in times of crisis; health care expenditure increased by 9 per cent year on year per capita after SARS, EBOLA and ZIKA, making most of the health statistics far better than most developed nations.

The biggest success story can be summarized by Vietnam’s ability to provide Test results within 80 minutes, which many of the developed nations took five to six days, which made the testing useless. This is also the reason that Vietnam could test 1,000 people for each tested positive case, which is the highest in the world; Vietnam today has about 1,000 detected cases and have reported only two deaths so far.

Economic response to any pandemic must start with the focusing on the heath sector and past pandemics were taken as a learning opportunity, those who have done better this time have actually sharpened this focus with an unprecedented preparedness.

The others on this list are Indonesia, who have now merged their disaster recovery task force with the National Economic Recovery taskforce under the Economic Affairs Minister and the full focus on State Owned Enterprises to take the economy out of the unemployment crisis is a distinguishing feature of the recovery. Also Indonesia has factored in a long and arduous battle with the virus and have taken long term view of things to come. Their response to the recent job losses is directed to long term strategy to capitalise on the recent apathy of many global firms to stay anchored to supply chains deeply embedded in China. The other centralised focus has been to direct credit assistance to micro, small and medium enterprises. This diversity of credit assistance that touches vast sections of people and business is a distinguishing feature for Indonesia.

Finding a balance between two potentially competing forces, health and economic interests is one of the key drivers of success.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Procyon Mukherjee works as Chief Procurement Officer at LafargeHolcim India. The ideas presented are his personal and have no connection to the beliefs of the company where he works.

Economy & Market

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

Published

3 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

2 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

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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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.