South Indian Cement Manufacturers’ Association (SICMA) President N Srinivasan has sought the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s intervention to impose higher duty on the import of clinker and cement into India to match neighbouring countries that have slapped anti-dumping duties on import of cement from India into their countries.

Highlighting the mismatch in capacity between the South and the North of India, SICMA stated that South — with 180 million tonnes per annum (MPTA) capacity — accounts for almost 40 per cent of India’s cement production. Other parts of the country will face a deficit in cement production

in a few years’ time. Some regions already are — north-east India is often short of cement. SICMA also sought the government to facilitate movement of cement by providing either telescopic railway freight or some other method.

“GST alone fetches about `30,000 crore annually from the Indian cement industry, the second largest in the world after China,” asserted SICMA in its representation.

As the first half year was facing the brunt of the high input costs, there has been evidence of a silver lining as the year ended. There has been a decline in imported coal and pet coke prices in the last two months. South African coal prices have fallen to $130-140/tonne from its peak of $220- 230/tonne; pet coke prices down to $140-150 per tonne (from its peak $220/ tonne). Average fuel cost for the industry should increase by `100-150/tonne in the October-December period as per rating agencies.

On 17th December the industry doyens came together as part of the 5th Indian Cement Review Awards and top of their agenda was – Decarbonisation of cement.

India’s commitment to net zero cannot be realised without the contribution of the cement sector. At the 7th Indian Cement Review Conference, the best minds from the industry voiced their opinions and ideas on decarbonisation. Companies cited several initiatives including the use of electric vehicles for cement, clinker and other input output logistics.

At the 5th Indian Cement Review Awards 2021, our guest of honour, Anil Agarwal, Additional Secretary, Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, was impressed by growth that the industry had managed despite trying conditions. However, he urged the industry to innovate and build value for their shareholders.

Housing sales have been up by 71% over previous year buy are yet lower than prepandemic

levels. Road construction has been lagging behind. “The government has set a target of 12,000 km (for) the current financial year against which 5,118 km which has been constructed as on November 30, 2021,” road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari informed the Rajya Sabha last month. The government has lowered the target for the year to 33 km/day from 40 km/day set earlier. The original target was to build 14,600 km highways in 2021-22, up from 13,327 km constructed in 2020-21.

Construction fell to its lowest in four years to 21.3 km per day during the April-November period of the current fiscal year, compared with an average of 25.8 km/day in the same period last fiscal. It was 24 km/day in the comparable period of FY19 and 24.8 in the same period in FY20, both pre-pandemic periods.

The new Omicron wave is likely to slow down the momentum albeit temporarily as it is seen a s less severe. The Union Budget must step up infrastructure spending by working towards credible and realisable plans for fund raises.