Concrete

Envisioning a Better Tomorrow

Published

3 years ago

April 10, 2023

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Vivek Agnihotri, CEO and Executive Director – Cement, Prism Johnson, speaks about the company’s innovations in cement and their vision for the future.

Prism Johnson, the ‘Made for Future’ philosophy largely encompasses all of its three divisions. They have recently launched new products – Prism Champion, which in comparison to all cement present in the market has a higher quality; Prism Champion Plus, which is a premium product that contributes about 40 per cent to the total sale; and Prism Duratech, which is a specialised product for high strength performance areas. Customers have accepted Prism Champion Plus as a premium product. There are territories where approximately 70 to 80 per cent of sales is from this premium product.
Wherever architects and engineers design long beamless walls or narrow sections, Prism Duratech comes in use as a specialised product. The company has also launched a water resistant cement, which had been in research and development for the last three years. They noticed that this segment was emerging, but still took their time to launch to make it better than the products available in the market. With multiple iterations, research and tests done, they believe this will be the best water resistant cement in the market.
Prism Johnson follows the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). This is a mandate in India. They also take samples from the market and construction sites and analyse what is commonly available in the market and then reconfigure their specifications to give more to the customers. Their premium is not just price, it also comes with surety of performance.
The brand is well accepted in the central part of India, and it has a high rate of capacity utilisation, which has been going good in the recent years.

The Eco-friendly Approach
Prism Johnson makes and sells blended cement with the permitted levels of fly ash in the cement composition. They do not have slag available in the central part of India as hardly any steel plants are located close by, otherwise they would have developed a blend using slag as well. Reducing the clinker factor and creating blends is their effort towards reducing their carbon footprint from the environment.
The company has reduced fuel consumption and power consumption as compared to previous years and that is an on-going process. They are an efficient plant and have installed a waste heat recovery system and perhaps it is one of India’s best in the cement industry. It is a 22.5 megawatt WHRS plant, which is of much higher capacity than other cement plants. They have also installed a 30 megawatt solar power plant and are using approximately 35 per cent renewable energy. They are looking forward to increasing this capacity and steps are being taken in this direction.
The three key benefits that their customers get from using their products foremost include quality. They are extremely focused on quality and give demonstrations in the market with site constructions. Secondly, it is their technical support services. Their services are one of the highest intensive support services in the market that provides support to the customer to train his masons, thus training hundreds of masons per month. They have approximately 65 thousand masons registered with them who at some point of time used their cement and have been trained by the company’s experts. Good quality cement requires good quality construction practices. They work a lot on good quality construction practices with the masons.
Thirdly, Prism Johnson works very closely with architects and engineers. They understand their requirements, designs and what they are working on. This is a huge plus for the end user as the product they get is what they truly need.
Prism Johnson is a rural based organisation. The kind of construction that is coming up in the rural parts of the country, using their cement, is almost similar to that of the metro cities due to the practices that the company follows. They support builders and help them to design buildings using their cement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Vivek Agnihotri shoulders multiple responsibilities as the CEO and Executive Director (Cement) as well as Board Director with Prism Johnson Ltd.

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Concrete

Lokesh Lays Stone For Rs 31 Billion Cement Unit In Kadapa

Line-2 expansion to make Kadapa a major cement hub

Published

6 days ago

July 20, 2026

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Andhra Pradesh Education and IT Minister Nara Lokesh on Wednesday laid the foundation stone for the Line-2 expansion of Dalmia Bharat Cement at Chinnakomerla village in Mylavaram Mandal in Kadapa district. The project carries an investment of Rs 31 billion (bn) and is slated for completion by the third quarter of the financial year 2028. The expansion is intended to boost industrial growth and employment generation across the Rayalaseema region.

Once commissioned, the Kadapa facility will become Dalmia Bharat’s largest integrated cement manufacturing ecosystem in southern India, creating over 1,000 direct and indirect jobs and opening new business avenues for regional micro, small and medium enterprises and transport operators. Lokesh said the expansion signalled growing corporate confidence in the state and reflected the practical ease of doing business that secured repeat investment.

He placed the project within the government’s wider economic targets and recalled the Yuvagalam padayatra commitment to generate two million (mn) jobs within five years, noting that the state would cultivate talent while industry created opportunities. Lokesh highlighted Andhra Pradesh’s competitive pursuit of major manufacturing accounts, mentioning past successes and a personal initiative to engage global investors when persuading them to anchor expansion in the state.

The plant will leverage Kadapa’s abundant limestone reserves to scale production and sustainability. Clinker capacity is planned to rise from two point five million tonnes per annum (mn tpa) to six point one mn tpa, while overall cement output will increase from three point six mn tpa to nine point six mn tpa. The unit is designed to operate on over eighty per cent renewable energy and deploy waste heat recovery, zero liquid discharge, water recycling and advanced AI systems to optimise efficiency. Industries Minister TG Bharat, BC Welfare Minister S. Savitha and Jammalamadugu MLA C. Adinarayana Reddy attended the ceremony.

Concrete

Cement Prices to Stay Flat in Q2 FY27 as Costs Squeeze Margins

HDFC Securities warns monsoon slowdown and higher fuel costs

Published

1 week ago

July 17, 2026

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HDFC Securities has said the cement industry is unlikely to register a sequential increase in prices in Q2 FY27 as monsoon-related demand moderation coincides with rising fuel and packaging costs that will squeeze margins. The brokerage observed that price gains remained modest, with increases of two to three per cent quarter-on-quarter across regions, and noted subdued offtake in May with improvement in June as a delayed monsoon supported construction activity. The brokerage added that modest pricing gains so far have been insufficient to offset the input cost escalation.

The report stated that input cost pressures intensified in Q1 FY27 owing to the West Asia conflict, which pushed up coal and pet coke prices and is expected to keep fuel costs elevated, with a likely peak in Q2 FY27. It assessed that total variable costs, including packing, could rise by around Rs 150 per t quarter-on-quarter and that lower offtake and seasonal operating deleverage could further raise operating expenditure by about Rs 50 per t quarter-on-quarter.

Overall, cement prices were estimated to remain flat in Q2 FY27 as monsoon-led demand weakness offsets limited upside in realisation, and rising fuel costs alongside seasonal deleverage were expected to compress industry margins by over Rs 100 per t quarter-on-quarter to below Rs 880 per t. The brokerage indicated that the combined impact of energy inflation and higher packing expenditure would be the principal drivers of margin contraction in the near term. HDFC Securities projected a recovery in margins in H2 FY27 should the West Asia turmoil subside and energy and packing costs cool off.

The brokerage expressed optimism on long-term demand fundamentals and said improving realisation together with an anticipated cost cool-off should support a margin rebound from H2 FY27 onward, underpinning favourable industry prospects over the medium term. Its outlook rests on monsoon normalisation and a decline in imported fuel prices in the second half of the fiscal year.

Concrete

Dalmia Bharat Begins Rs 31 Bn Green Cement Unit in Kadapa

New Andhra Pradesh plant to add 9.6 MTPA cement capacity by FY28

Published

1 week ago

July 16, 2026

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Dalmia Bharat Limited recently laid the foundation stone for its second manufacturing unit at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh. The company will invest Rs 31 billion in developing the next-generation integrated cement manufacturing facility.

The foundation-laying ceremony was attended by Nara Lokesh, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Real-Time Governance and Human Resources Development, along with Puneet Dalmia, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dalmia Bharat, senior government officials and company representatives.

Scheduled to be commissioned by the third quarter of FY28, the Kadapa unit will become Dalmia Bharat’s largest integrated manufacturing facility in southern India. It will have a clinker production capacity of 6.1 million tonnes per annum and a cement manufacturing capacity of 9.6 million tonnes per annum.

The facility is designed to produce what the company describes as one of the world’s greenest cements. It is also expected to generate approximately 1,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities while supporting local MSMEs, transporters, contractors and service providers.

Lokesh said the investment reflected Dalmia Bharat’s confidence in Andhra Pradesh and aligned with the state’s objective of promoting sustainable industrialisation, job creation and technology-led economic growth.

Puneet Dalmia said the project represented the company’s long-term vision of developing low-carbon cement manufacturing assets. He added that the facility would establish new benchmarks in operational efficiency and sustainability while supporting India’s infrastructure and environmental goals.

Dalmia Bharat will also expand its regional community development programmes in education, healthcare, skill development and welfare through its DIKSHa and Gram Parivartan initiatives.

The company currently has an installed cement manufacturing capacity of 54.7 million tonnes across 19 manufacturing units in 12 states. It is also the first cement company globally to commit to the RE100, EP100 and EV100 initiatives.