Economy & Market

KJS will strive to make its dealers market leaders

Published

5 years ago

October 14, 2021

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PK Ahluwalia, Managing Director, KJS Cement.

KJS, on the occasion of Founder’s day Celebrations, announced a capacity expansion from 2.5 mtpa to 5 mtpa by the end of 2015. The company has a goal to become the top national player in the cement industry with its KJS Cement Vision-2020. KJS is in the process of erecting two grinding units of 1 million tonnes per annum each in Bihar and Jharsuguda, Odisha along with additional clinkerisation capacity of 2.5 million tonnes; this will raise the capacity of KJS Cement to 5 million tonnes p.a. and make them one of the largest plants in the country. They have already applied for additional mines. Complementing the capacity growth, the marketing network too has been growing wider and stronger. PK Ahluwalia, Managing Director, KJS Cement, talks about an approach that nurtures the company associates and fuels growth, too. Excerpts from the interview.

What was the thought process behind the preparation of your media plan?

Our media plan was developed using typical insights from the cement trade; most importantly, we put our money where the return in terms of recall is optimum. Television and print media form key components of our media plan, as we have set a target of becoming a brand to reckon with in the next year. Apart from the mass media build-up, we strongly believe in tactical visibility which helps the KJS brand to connect with its customers in rural areas. Our media plan is inspired by the vision to make KJS a premium brand.

What are the challenges you foresee in the market and how have you factored them into your marketing strategy?

We know the capacity to be well matched with demand, which will encourage companies to move towards better brand marketing rather than commodity selling.

Till that happens, cement remains in the grey zone of being a commodity as well as a brand. Buying will be driven by both brand recall and pricing. The challenge lies in assimilating KJS’ capacity in the market and then graduating to develop a premium brand. The idea is to maintain volume and simultaneously build value for the KJS cement brand. KJS Cement will strive to gain a share in the lucrative trade segment and become a preferred brand. Of course, we understand that it will take time and much effort.

Soaring raw material prices have forced cement prices up. How can one persuade consumers to shell out extra for your product?

Yes, raw material prices have pushed up the costs. It is clear that the consumer will shell out at a premium only if he sees value in the brand and does not see cement merely as a product. We believe in the creation of value through superior services like civil engineers educating the masons on how to improve the construction practices and also advising concrete consultants on the scientific and effective use of cement. Cement is an intermediate product, which in conjunction with the right construction practices, leads to building stronger homes for the middle class in the nation. The construction expertise in the nation must evolve to be on par with those in the developed nations. At KJS, our QC team visits the market and draws samples of other brands for comparative testing in the presence of actual consumers. These services distinguish us from other brands. Premium creation, we believe, will come from premium management and processes.

Which is the better strategy, distributing through few large dealers or routing it via an extensive network of small dealer outlets?

The design and shape of the network is immaterial, the objective is to distribute enough material to every city, tehsil centre, rural mandis, and ensure that we price the brand on par or higher than the competition. Though initially, during the launch phase, we have go with few large dealers, eventually, after one- and-a- half years of operations and crossing 1.12 lakh tonnes per month, we are beginning to focus on an extensive and deep network of smaller dealers who will co-exist with the larger dealers. In fact, we envision our network to be like a close- knit and a growing family.

Cement is seen more as a commodity than a specialised product. How do you create brand differentiation and stand apart?

We believe in converting the commodity into a consumer brand through an effective advertising strategy driven by a techno-marketing team of civil engineers who will reach out to the consumers/ users, adding value through knowledge and world class construction practices. The trick is to execute the strategy effectively at the ground level and build brand differentiation. Our key differentiators are brand quality and market services which conform to BIS and are of world class cement industry standards.

How do you reach construction professionals at different levels, ranging from civil engineers and consultants to contractors and masons?

The KJS team maintains a close interaction with leading civil engineers across the country and also actively participates in the government initiatives for rural construction. We associate with contractors who are working for the Gram Sadak Paryojana in MP and with the Mandi Parishad Samiti in UP. We reach them through our extensive network of dealers and civil engineers.

Quality perception of cement varies from customer to customer. How do you factor this into your marketing plans?

Quality perceptions are built with time and experience of the consumers. KJS Cement has built up a high reputation for its quality in a short time. A-grade quality always creates A-grade quality perception, which in turn leads to brand perception. We follow an uncompromising approach towards quality in everything from product to the management of company and services. This approach gives us the edge in quality perception.

Other than price and quality, which other factors influence buying decisions?

Word-of-mouth or the referrals from the peer group is the single biggest influencer of consumer decisions in every industry, including cement.

What are your current and future marketing plans / initiatives for promoting your products at different levels?

At KJS, our marketing initiatives will include creating market share consolidation in the core market and expanding our network in long-lead lucrative markets.

The plan will include careful identification of such markets, with a viewpoint of upcoming capacities in the area.

Over and above all this, we will continue to remain committed to inclusive growth and will ensure that our business associates continue to grow and flourish with the company. KJS will strive to make its dealers market leaders.

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.