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Fortifying its Presence in Southern India

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Bharathi Cement is a group company of Vicat France – the global leader

in cement and products. The aim of the company is to make its presence

felt in the Southern market of India.

The Vicat Group manufactures

cement, Ready-mix concrete, concrete product (Precast) and Aggregates.

In 1817 Louis Vicat discovered artificial cement. The Group continues

expanding under the President Jacques Merceron-Vicat and is present in

11 countries (France, US, Turkey, Senegal, Switzerland, Egypt, Italy,

Mali, Kazakhstan, Mauretannia and India). The group has two tie ups in

India, one is with Sagar Cements and the other is Bharathi Cement.

Bharathi Cement is a group company of Vicat France –

the global leader in cement and produces various qualities like OPC 43,

OPC 53, PPC and PSC. Backed by global expertise, the company is driven

by a team of senior professionals in cement industry. The company has an

operational plant Kadapa District, Andhra

Pradesh.Bharathi was founded by the promoters of

Sakshi Telugu Daily and Sakshi TV, under the chairmanship of Bharathi

Reddy and senior professionals with vast experience in power, cement,

Infrastructure, ready-mixed concrete, aggregates and waste

management.Having set up with the most modern cement

plant with state of the art technology at Nallalingayapalli,

Kamalapuram mandal, Kadapa district of Andhra pradesh. The company gets

limestone from Narzi deposits. Another characteristic feature of this

lime stone is low alkali, magnesia and low chloride contents which are

highly desirable parameters for concrete

durability.The state of the art technology adopted

at the plant consists of Vertical Roller mill of LOESCHE, Germany for

grinding of cement to achieve the optimum fineness, and controlled

particle size distribution of cement

particlesOPC 53

grade

Ordinary Portland Cement 53 grade is

manufactured by inter-grinding of high grade clinker (with high

C3Scontent) and right quality gypsum in predetermined proportions. The

cement produced gives high early strength and excellent ultimate

strength.OPC 43

gradeOrdinary Portland Cement 43 grade is

manufactured by inter-grinding of high grade clinker (with optimum

C3Scontent) and right quality gypsum in appropriate

proportions.PPCBharathi

Portland pozzolana cement is a premium composite cement manufactured by

inter grinding of high quality clinker, carefully selected High

reactive Silica (HRS) obtained from electrostatic precipitators with

right quality

gypsum.PSCBharathi

Portland Slag cement is manufactured by inter grinding high quality

clinker with carefully selected, good quality slag purchased from major

steel plants and using high quality gypsum.The

Bharathi Cement plant has the most advanced Vertical Roller Mill (Type

63.3) from LOESCHE, Germany. This mill has a capacity of producing 360

tons per hour and is equipped with a 6,700 kw gear

box.The mill is designed to produce a range of high

quality cements such as Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland

Pozzolona Cement (PPC), Pozzolona Slag Cement (PSC) and Ground slag at

varying fineness. It has a rated capacity of 360tph OPC at 3000 Blaine

and 300 tph of ground slag at 4000 Blaine.Bharathi

Cement has a network of 1805 dealers across all States and 14 branch

offices. It has presence in Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka,

Kerala, and Goa and Maharashtra.Quality

controlOne of the greatest challenges in

cement production is ensuring consistent quality. At Bharathi Cement,

thus, the company has accomplished with the Robotic lab, where a Robotic

arm checks and monitors samples to ensure consistent grain and texture.

This means, that no matter which bag of cement you pick up, the quality

is going to be just as great.Features of

cement plant in Kadappa

Bharathi Cement is

produced in an ultra-modern plant located at Nallalingayapalli in

Kamalapuram Mandal of Kadapa District in Andhra Pradesh. The plant is

built over an area of 487 acres and has a mining area of 1562 acres,

consisting of the world renowned Narzi limestone deposits, which posses a

high lime content that gives high early strength and ultimate long term

strength. It has over 300 million tonne of limestone deposits spread

over 1500 acres in Kadapa District. At 5 million tonne per annum, the

limestone deposits will be sufficient for continuing production for next

60 years. With a capacity of 5 million tonne, this is one of the

largest cement plants in Asia.Green

initiativesAs a part of its Corporate

Social Responsibility the company has taken number of initiatives. A few

of them are as follows: • Ambient air Quality Monitoring

Station is installed at the Plant to check Air Quality. • 8

nos. Stack Monitoring Systems are located in surrounding villages within

a radius of 8 km to measure Air, Dust and Water.• A

detailed Survey on noise environment was carried out in and around the

Project site to study the levels of noise, and corrective steps have

been taken in consultation with BS ENVI – TECH.• Stack

Monitoring System is installed at different locations in the

plant.• Sprinkling of water on ground at dust polluted areas

to control the dust rising due to movement of Heavy Transport Vehicles

etc.• Provided concrete roads in the factory and township.

• Green Belt Development (Tree Plantation) spread in 420 acre

of land in surrounding areas of the plant to control air pollution.

Full-fledged horticulture department is set up for this

purpose.• Water samples are being collected periodically and

tested in the laboratory. • Rain water harvesting structures

are developed in the plant.• Also, when it comes to the

packing of the cement bag, the sack is made of polypropylene which is

environment friendly degradable thermoplastic material. When incinerated

or put to waste it does not pollute air, soil or water with toxic

residues. The empty sack can be recycled and can be used for producing

new sacks.

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Price hikes, drop in input costs help cement industry to post positive margins: Care Ratings

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Region-wise,the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by thenorthern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13%of the capacity, respectively.

The cement industry is expected to post positive margins on decent price hikes over the months, falling raw material prices and marked drop in overall production costs, said an analysis of Care Ratings.

Wholesale and retail prices of cement have increased 11.9% and 12.4%, respectively, in the current financial year. As whole prices have remained elevated in most of the markets in the months of FY20, against the corresponding period of the previous year.

Similarly, electricity and fuel cost have declined 11.9% during 9M FY20 due to drop in crude oil prices. Logistics costs, the biggest cost for cement industry, has also dropped 7.7% (selling and distribution) as the Railways extended the benefit of exemption from busy season surcharge. Moreover, the cost of raw materials, too, declined 5.1% given the price of limestone had fallen 11.3% in the same aforementioned period, the analysis said.

According to Care Ratings, though the overall sales revenue has increased only 1.3%, against 16% growth in the year-ago period, the overall expenditure has declined 3.2% which has benefited the industry largely given the moderation in sales.

Even though FY20 has been subdued in terms of production and demand, the fall in cost of production has still supported the cement industry by clocking in positive margins, the rating agency said.

Cement demand is closely linked to the overall economic growth, particularly the housing and infrastructure sector. The cement sector will be seeing a sharp growth in volumes mainly due to increasing demand from affordable housing and other government infrastructure projects like roads, metros, airports, irrigation.

The government’s newly introduced National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), with its target of becoming a $5-trillion economy by 2025, is a detailed road map focused on economic revival through infrastructure development.

The NIP covers a gamut of sectors; rural and urban infrastructure and entails investments of Rs.102 lakh crore to be undertaken by the central government, state governments and the private sector. Of the total projects of the NIP, 42% are under implementation while 19% are under development, 31% are at the conceptual stage and 8% are yet to be classified.

The sectors that will be of focus will be roads, railways, power (renewable and conventional), irrigation and urban infrastructure. These sectors together account for 79% of the proposed investments in six years to 2025. Given the government’s thrust on infrastructure creation, it is likely to benefit the cement industry going forward.

Similarly, the Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana, aimed at providing affordable housing, will be a strong driver to lift cement demand. Prices have started correcting Q4 FY20 onwards due to revival in demand of the commodity, the agency said in its analysis.

Industry’s sales revenue has grown at a CAGR of 7.3% during FY15-19 but has grown only 1.3% in the current financial year. Tepid demand throughout the country in the first half of the year has led to the contraction of sales revenue. Fall in the total expenditure of cement firms had aided in improving the operating profit and net profit margins of the industry (OPM was 15.2 during 9M FY19 and NPM was 3.1 during 9M FY19). Interest coverage ratio, too, has improved on an overall basis (ICR was 3.3 during 9M FY19).

According to Cement Manufacturers Association, India accounts for over 8% of the overall global installed capacity. Region-wise, the southern region comprises 35% of the total cement capacity, followed by the northern, eastern, western and central region comprising 20%, 18%, 14% and 13% of the capacity, respectively.

Installed capacity of domestic cement makers has increased at a CAGR of 4.9% during FY16-20. Manufacturers have been able to maintain a capacity utilisation rate above 65% in the past quinquennium. In the current financial year due to the prolonged rains in many parts of the country, the capacity utilisation rate has fallen from 70% during FY19 to 66% currently (YTD).

Source:moneycontrol.com

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Wonder Cement shows journey of cement with new campaign

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The campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV…

ETBrandEquity

Cement manufacturing company Wonder Cement, has announced the launch of a digital campaign ‘Har Raah Mein Wonder Hai’. The campaign has been designed specifically to run on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

#HarRaahMeinWonderHai is a one-minute video, designed and conceptualised by its digital media partner Triature Digital Marketing and Technologies Pvt Ltd. The entire journey of the cement brand from leaving the factory, going through various weather conditions and witnessing the beauty of nature and wonders through the way until it reaches the destination i.e., to the consumer is very intriguing and the brand has tried to showcase the same with the film.

Sanjay Joshi, executive director, Wonder Cement, said, "Cement as a product poses a unique marketing challenge. Most consumers will build their homes once and therefore buy cement once in a lifetime. It is critical for a cement company to connect with their consumers emotionally. As a part of our communication strategy, it is our endeavor to reach out to a large audience of this country through digital. Wonder Cement always a pioneer in digital, with the launch of our IGTV campaign #HarRahMeinWonderHai, is the first brand in the cement category to venture into this space. Through this campaign, we have captured the emotional journey of a cement bag through its own perspective and depicted what it takes to lay the foundation of one’s dreams and turn them into reality."

The story begins with a family performing the bhoomi poojan of their new plot. It is the place where they are investing their life-long earnings; and planning to build a dream house for the family and children. The family believes in the tradition of having a ‘perfect shuruaat’ (perfect beginning) for their future dream house. The video later highlights the process of construction and in sequence it is emphasising the value of ‘Perfect Shuruaat’ through the eyes of a cement bag.

Tarun Singh Chauhan, management advisor and brand consultant, Wonder Cement, said, "Our objective with this campaign was to show that the cement produced at the Wonder Cement plant speaks for itself, its quality, trust and most of all perfection. The only way this was possible was to take the perspective of a cement bag and showing its journey of perfection from beginning till the end."

According to the company, the campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV. No other brand in this category has created content specific to the platform.

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In spite of company’s optimism, demand weakness in cement is seen in the 4% y-o-y drop in sales volume. (Reuters)

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Cost cuts and better realizations save? the ?day ?for ?UltraTech Cement, Updated: 27 Jan 2020, Vatsala Kamat from Live Mint

Lower cost of energy and logistics helped Ebitda per tonne rise by about 29% in Q3
Premiumization of acquired brands, synergistic?operations hold promise for future profit growth Topics

UltraTech Cement
India’s largest cement producer UltraTech Cement Ltd turned out a bittersweet show in the December quarter. A sharp drop in fuel costs and higher realizations helped drive profit growth. But the inherent demand weakness was evident in the sales volumes drop during the quarter.

Better realizations during the December quarter, in spite of the 4% year-on-year volume decline, minimized the pain. Net stand-alone revenue fell by 2.6% to ?9,981.8 crore.

But as pointed out earlier, lower costs on most fronts helped profitability. The chart alongside shows the sharp drop in energy costs led by lower petcoke prices, lower fuel consumption and higher use of green power. Logistics costs, too, fell due to lower railway freight charges and synergies from the acquired assets. These savings helped offset the increase in raw material costs.

The upshot: Q3 Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) of about ?990 per tonne was 29% higher from a year ago. The jump in profit on a per tonne basis was more or less along expected lines, given the increase in realizations. "Besides, the reduction in net debt by about ?2,000 crore is a key positive," said Binod Modi, analyst at Reliance Securities Ltd.

Graphic by Santosh Sharma/Mint
What also impressed analysts is the nimble-footed integration of the recently merged cement assets of Nathdwara and Century, which was a concern on the Street.

Kunal Shah, analyst (institutional equities) at Yes Securities (India) Ltd, said: "The company has proved its ability of asset integration. Century’s cement assets were ramped up to 79% capacity utilization in December, even as they operated Nathdwara generating an Ebitda of ?1,500 per tonne."

Looks like the demand weakness mirrored in weak sales during the quarter was masked by the deft integration and synergies derived from these acquired assets. This drove UltraTech’s stock up by 2.6% to ?4,643 after the Q3 results were declared on Friday.

Brand transition from Century to UltraTech, which is 55% complete, is likely to touch 80% by September 2020. A report by Jefferies India Pvt. Ltd highlights that the Ebitda per tonne for premium brands is about ?5-10 higher per bag than the average (A cement bag weighs 50kg). Of course, with competition increasing in the arena, it remains to be seen how brand premiumization in the cement industry will pan out. UltraTech Cement scores well among peers here.

However, there are road bumps ahead for the cement sector and for UltraTech. Falling gross domestic product growth, fiscal slippages and lower budgetary allocation to infrastructure sector are making industry houses jittery on growth. Although UltraTech’s management is confident that cement demand is looking up, sustainability and pricing power remains a worry for the near term.

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