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14th NCB International Seminar on Cement and Building Materials
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3 years agoon
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adminThe biannual event organised by National Council of Cement & Building Materials (NCB) was held last month at New Delhi. We had covered a brief in our earlier issue. Here is a complete report.
The 14th NCB International Seminar on Cement and Building Materials, held during December 1-4, 2015 at Manekshaw Centre, New Delhi, received overwhelming participation of more than 1,050 delegates including 100 overseas delegates from various countries – Austria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Oman, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, etc.
Inaugurating the seminar, Amitabh Kant, Secretary, DIPP, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said that the Government envisaged several projects on laying concrete roads, Housing for all, Make in India, creation of smart cities, dedicated freight corridors, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, connectivity improvement including water transport, which will bring required boost in infrastructure and housing sectors. To meet the projected demand of over 400 mn t in 2019-20, he urged the Indian cement industry to accelerate its growth and attain requisite installed capacity. He assured that the Government would seriously consider the principle of ?Polluter Pays? to augment the thermal substitution rate of alternate fuels, which would be of immense support to the cement industry.
In his Presidential address, Dr S Chouksey, Vice President, Cement Manufacturer?s Association (CMA) & Vice Chairman, National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB) & Whole time Director, JK Lakshmi Cements Ltd said that completing its 100 years of journey in October 2014 with enviable growth, the Indian cement industry became the second largest producer of cement in the world after China, with a state-of-the art capacity of around 390 mn t accounting for about 7 per cent of the total global production. He pointed out that the cement industry has achieved spectacular results in terms of energy conservation and environmental improvement; the quality of cement produced in the country being one of the best in the international market can easily compete for exports.
Ashwani Pahuja, Director General, NCB, presented a perspective of the cement industry, covering technological advancements, energy performance, environmental improvement, quality management, emerging concrete technologies as well as NCB?s contribution in these areas. He mentioned that NCB has been actively associated with the Global Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), a part of the World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) on a key project to assess opportunities for carbon emission reduction and increased resource efficiency in cement manufacturing process in India. This has resulted in a Low Carbon Technology Roadmap for the Indian Cement industry wherein CO2 emissions are estimated to be reduced to 0.58 t CO2/t of cement by 2020 and 0.35 t CO2/t of cement by 2050. Presenting the industry perspective, Ajay Kapur, Managing Director & CEO, Ambuja Cements Ltd highlighted the sustainability initiatives made by Indian cement industry and stressed it was strongly committed to achieve the climate targets following the low carbon technology road map which is already in place. He drew attention to the challenges faced by cement industry such as high cost of fuel due to shortfall in coal linkages, insecurity in indigenous fuel availability; inconsistency in quality of indigenous coal, rail logistics, etc. and sought government?s intervention to resolve the issues.
The special publication, ?Cement and Construction Industry – Perspective for Sustainable Growth? was brought out jointly by NCB and CMA on the occasion of the Seminar, wherein experts have drawn attention to various issues that need to be addressed by the cement and construction industries to achieve sustainable growth and suggested action plans.
Around 180 technical papers were presented in 25 technical sessions, apart from two special invited lectures by internationally renowned experts. The authors gave emphasis to issues related to all areas of cement manufacture, blended and special cements, performance and durability of concrete as well as emerging trends in building materials and construction practices.
Special lectures were delivered by Dr Tetsuya Ishida on ?Multi-scale modeling of structural concrete for performance based design? and by Dr Anjan K Chatterjee on ?New cements and binding materials.?
The presentations during the seminar covered technological advancements in plant and machinery, which have resulted in production lines as high as 12,000 tpd and single mill solutions for grinding. Efficient and reliable coolers; waste heat recovery systems; optimised cyclone, calciner and burner geometry designs; roller press systems for finish grinding of raw material, slag and clinker; new generation drive systems for large capacity VRMs and retrofit of energy efficient equipment/systems were discussed. Case studies showcasing opportunities and challenges faced in co processing of alternate fuels and action plans implemented to successfully achieve the Specific Energy Consumption (SEC) targets of PAT scheme were presented.
Papers were presented on integrated process control systems; accurate flow measuring systems; high performance refractory solutions; modern aeration systems in silos, advanced wear protection measures; gear lubrication systems etc. Trouble shooting and management techniques, system audits as well as process diagnostic studies on kiln, cooler, pregrinder (VRPM), separator and bag filter were also presented during the seminar. Advanced material handling equipment for packing plants and dispatch terminals; sustainable packaging options, unique dust suppression systems; advanced explosion prevention systems; latest trends in weighing and dozing of raw materials, coal blending management systems, fly ash beneficiation systems were discussed.
Advanced, reliable systems based on XRF and PGNA (Prompt Gamma Neutron activation) techniques; near infra red online analysis in cross belt and air slide applications; use of isothermal calorimetry in quality control of concrete; laboratory automation; proficiency testing solutions for laboratories; bench marking of quality parameters, with emphasis on maintaining and assessing the quality of testing; best practices in implementation of TQM; bench marking safety standards, were presented. Relevance of newer cements such as High-Belite Portland cement and Portland Limestone cement and new binding materials that are being developed to meet the challenges of mitigating the problems of climate change due to carbon dioxide and the need for further research in this direction was highlighted.
Investigations on the possibility of utilizing different industrial wastes and by-products such as spent FCC/RFCC catalyst, LD slag, Copper slag, lead zinc slag, tailing wastes etc. as supplementary raw materials and blending components in cement as well as use of different sulfate bearing wastes as substitutes for gypsum were highlighted.
On the application side, sustainable development through use of supplementary cements, construction and demolition waste, newer materials like geo-polymer concrete, increase in durability of concrete structures using newer materials like steel fibers; ensuring durable construction through service life prediction of new structure and enhancement of residual service life of existing structures were discussed. The shift from prescription based specifications to performance based specifications for strength and durability of concrete structures was highlighted. Requirement of cyclic use of materials for concrete making was emphasized. Suitability of fly ash based sintered aggregate as an alternate to natural aggregate, bed ash as sand; issues pertaining to use of construction and demolition waste, limestone waste, copper slag etc as part replacement of conventional aggregates; need for controlling river sand mining instead of banning were discussed.
Case studies relating to improvement in engineering properties of concrete by use of micro fine fly ash, ultrafine slag and other micro materials were presented. Developmental studies on futuristic materials, claimed to be greener substitute to existing materials like low density aerated concrete, pervious concrete and controlled low strength materials were also discussed.
In his valedictory address at the concluding session of the seminar, Shailendra Singh, Joint Secretary, DIPP, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said that with the ever growing thrust on conservation of natural resources and reducing the carbon footprint, there is a greater need for integrating the use of supplementary raw materials, alternate fuels, waste heat recovery, renewable energy and clinker substitution into the cement process.
National Awards for ?Energy Efficiency?, ?Environmental Excellence? and ?Quality Excellence? in the Indian cement industry for the years 2013-14 and 2014-15 as well as the awards for ten best technical papers were presented by Shailendra Singh.
The technical exhibition organised concurrently with the seminar gave an exposure about the latest advancements in machinery and related auxiliaries, instrumental & control techniques; chemical & mineral additives & admixtures available to the industry and provided an opportunity for a very useful interaction among machinery suppliers and users.
Note: We were constrained to restrict part of the coverage of the event in the earlier issue since the issue was slated to for print when the event was still in progress.
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Price hikes, drop in input costs help cement industry to post positive margins: Care Ratings
Published
3 years agoon
October 21, 2021By
adminRegion-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
Published
3 years agoon
October 21, 2021By
adminThe campaign also marks Wonder Cement being the first ever cement brand to enter the world of IGTV…
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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)
Published
3 years agoon
October 21, 2021By
adminCost 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.