Bidyut Bhattacharya, Chief Technical Director, Sinoma International Engg Co India Positive about the potential of the country, Bidyut Bhattacharya, Chief Technical Director, Sinoma International Engg Co India explains that though the Indian industry saw a bad patch on the road to economic growth, the way forward is still exciting. The mature cement industry can definitely make use of some policy changes that will put the industry back on track in 2014. Excerpts from the interview.

Has the economic slowdown impacted production capacity augmentation or the setting up of new cement plants?
There is no denying the fact that there was a serious economic slowdown in India, over the last couple of years, resulting in a dismal GDP growth rate. Consequently, cement consumption has suffered and created a large overcapacity situation. So it is natural that new cement capacity augmentation has not been too encouraging.

Are we in the state of cement production overcapacity?
Yes, we are in a state of overcapacity of cement for the time being. In the backdrop of sub five percent growth rate, rough estimates project a figure of as high as 80 to 100 million tonnes of overcapacity in the country. The situation is even more precarious in the southern belt.

What policy changes can help the cement industry regain momentum from the year 2014 onwards?
The first and foremost requirement would be to boost investor sentiment. Enabling polices and a stable vision for the future is equally mandatory. The low-capacity utilisation of already installed production lines is troubling. To improve cement consumption, the economic growth rate is vital. In this respect, we strongly feel that government spending and regulatory clearances of large infrastructure projects will play an important role to revive not only the cement industry but the overall economy as well. Housing sector is also vital for cement consumption.

One of the major reasons/excuses for the present day reduced level of capex spending on new projects lies in regulatory hurdles and inordinate delays in clearances. This needs to be taken care of.

Higher cost of borrowing is another impediment to new investments in this sector. For a supportive interest rate regime, food inflation specifically, needs to be controlled with particular focus on supply side bottlenecks.

Energy sourcing is another bottleneck for the cement sector. Cement plants are highly energy- intensive and require both thermal energy in form of coal (in the case of India) and electrical power. Quality/quantity and the cost of both these energies seem to be bothering the Indian cement industry. The issue of lower quality coal need to be addressed by blending imported high grade coal. Supply of more washed coal from CIL would help. For power, co-generation (through WHR technology) would give a big relief and should be made mandatory as it is in China. Usage of alternate fuels is also vital.

Which new design trends are we likely to see in cement plants and the supporting systems?
The Indian cement industry, over the years, has employed the best available technology for production. Thanks to a high degree of blended cement utilisation, Indian cement producers are at the forefront of fuel and electrical energy consumption on a per- tonne- of- product basis. An additional benefit in terms of sustainability is lower per tonne CO2 emission. Stricter regulatory requirements are leading increasingly towards greener technologies; and they, in turn, lead to further energy efficiency.

Utilising a Vertical Roller Mill (VRM) or roll press circuit in finish grinding mode for raw material grinding is the industry norm today, and it provides a significant energy cost reduction over the traditional closed circuit ball mill system. Likewise, for coal grinding also, a vertical mill is used. For the energy-intensive finish grinding process, the ball mill plus roll press system is widely popular. In specific cases where slag grinding is involved with high per cent moisture, VRM technology for finish grinding is used. Only in extreme cases today, do we get request for close circuit ball mill for grinding; it is inherently less energy efficient. High efficiency separators are standard today for all milling systems.As regards the pyro-processing area, Indian cement producers continuously strive to achieve the lowest specific fuel consumption along with high power saving. High efficiency fourth generation grate coolers are being utilised widely since they provide high recuperation efficiency along with lower maintenance interventions. As the total cooling air requirement reduces from the earlier 2.2Nm3/kg clinker to say, 1.8Nm3/kg clinker, there is a lot of savings through reduced exhaust air and fans power consumption. To achieve lower fuel consumption, six stage pre-heater systems is the popular choice along with in-line calciners. Advanced low NOx technologies are utilised in many cement plants. For process fans, a static efficiency = 82 per cent and use of variable speed drives reduces power consumption.