Economy & Market

We can expect a lot of foreign real estate companies to enter the market

Published

5 years ago

October 14, 2021

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Harsh Bhutani, Executive Director, Hydrobaths Ramco Marketing Fraught with challenges, the industry had nothing to celebrate in 2013. The year 2014 too, may pose the same challenges, unless right steps are taken at the right time. The coming months will certainly call for innovative solutions in building materials and methods. Also, the market is ripe for foreign investors and we shall see some big players entering the market this year, says Harsh Bhutani, Executive Director, Hydrobaths Ramco Marketing. Excerpts from the interview.

To what extent have cement prices impacted the housing sector?
Real estate is the second-largest employment generating sector in India after agriculture, contributing about 5-6 per cent to its GDP. Cement is the key material in any form of construction and thus, a hike in its price will impact the housing sector. Cement prices went up by approximately Rs 7 per kg in the last few months and it hit the real estate market badly. If this situation continues, it will impact the overall real estate market and will lead to a delay in the delivery of projects as well as an increase in real estate prices; this will have an adverse effect on the economy on the whole.

What are your expectations about cement prices in 2014?
The cement industry may continue to face some challenges in 2014. Certain factors like rising labour costs and Indian Railways Busy Season Surcharge (BSS), which saw a hike from 12 per cent to 15 per cent in 2013, may continue to affect the industry. However, the government can help by initiating policies to help the sector. If these issues are not solved, cement prices will remain unstable, affecting the economy as a whole. With an estimated 15 per cent hike in the overall construction cost due to cement price hikes, the common man who will have to shell out more for basic commodities. Housing is one of the most basic needs for a family and with the rise in prices, citizens will be highly pressurised.

Do you foresee of increasing use of RMC for the realty projects in India?
Innovation is the key to progress in all forms of industry. In India, an estimated 480,000 residential units across affordable, mid- level and luxury housing segments will be delayed and there is the urgent need for faster methods of construction to meet this crisis. Other issues include rapid urbanisation, tremendous shortage of skilled labour and the need for hassle-free construction methods. Thus, I believe that conventional methods of construction involving RMC will see an increase but on a parallel track, pre-fabricated material and brick- less technology will gain prominence to meet the demands of this huge sector.

What are the major bottlenecks in the industry and what needs to be done to address them?
For any sector to progress, there needs to be a stable economy. 2013 was very unstable with the falling value of the Indian rupee, rising rates of inflation, tight liquidity, all of which led to the price hike of ancillary industries and eventually, a rise in the price of the projects.

Rising labour cost is a big challenge. Migrant labour from Bihar constitutes around 50 per cent of the unskilled workers employed in these sectors nationally, and labour shortages from states like Bihar result in 35-50 per cent higher wage bills for real estate firms. The government needs to address all these issues.

What new markets trends are we likely to see in 2014?
India has huge potential as a booming economy, and infrastructure and real estate are important determinants of that growth. Looking at the real estate sector, the government has already introduced several regulations like the Real Estate Regulation Bill and Real Estate Investment Trusts, which will provide a boost to the sector. With the huge need for housing in India, new methods of construction to speed up the construction process will be used by the developers. India is gaining prominence on the global map as a place for investment and we can expect a lot of foreign real estate companies to be entering the market. These companies will introduce pre-fabricated products and New Age technologies which will not be as labour- intensive and will make construction a lot faster. Looking at various pressure faced by the builder community, we expect them to look at innovative materials and methods for construction. Among the few alternatives, the most promising are products which can be used in place of brick and cement which are pre- fabricated products. The cost of construction using conventional options (such as brick, cement) is registering an increase, to the tune of 15 to 18 per cent. Products that assists in reducing construction costs and increasing construction speed by three times will be most relevant. This brick-less technology wall system is 1/6 the weight of conventional 4.5Ã¶ brick walls. Pre-fabricated products have thinner walls, thus providing more carpet/ saleable area for the project.Growing environmental concerns and awareness about green buildings will also be reflected in the construction methodologies in the coming years. The relevance of energy-efficient buildings has assumed greater significance in the light of fast depleting energy resources, energy scarcity and environmental pollution.

What are your expectations postelections?
We expect boost the infrastructure industry and refined policies to tackle the issues of inflation, cash flow, transparency in the approvals and acquisition processes of land. Thats should help to uplift the sector.

With an estimated 15 per cent hike in the overall construction cost due to cement price hikes, the common man who will have to shell out more for basic commodities.

Cement prices went up by approximately Rs 7 per kg in the last few months and it hit the real estate market badly.

The cost of construction using conventional options (such as brick, cement) is registering an increase, to the tune of 15 to 18 per cent.

Economy & Market

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

Published

1 week 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

3 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

3 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.