Economy & Market

Premiumisation is the Future of Cement

Published

9 months ago

July 23, 2025

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Sushrut Pant, Head of Marketing, Shree Cement, discusses the changing trends in the positioning of cement due to its exponentially rising importance in the nation building.

A towering skyscraper pierces Mumbai’s skyline; its foundation rooted in cement chosen for one reason: durability. Cement has always been the backbone of infrastructure development, but for too long, it’s been treated as a basic commodity—bought and sold on price alone. But that’s changing.
As India’s infrastructure and housing sectors surge, the shift toward premiumisation—building branded, high-value products—is becoming key to sustainable growth. Today, the cement industry is not just about price. It’s about delivering quality, building trust, standing out in a crowded market, and creating value that lasts.
In FY25, India’s cement industry had an installed capacity of 668 million tonnes, with production close to 470 million tonnes. Demand is set to climb to 450.78 million tonnes by FY27, driven by a 2025-26 infrastructure budget of over `11 lakh crore. With over 210 large cement plants in operation, price wars have squeezed margins. Premiumisation offers a way out. In 2024, premium cement products—priced 10 per cent to 15 per cent higher than standard grades—saw a 25 per cent demand spike in urban markets. Stakeholders across the value chain—from contractors and developers to homeowners—are choosing reliability in projects where failure isn’t an option.
So, what does premiumisation look like? Premiumisation is a combination of high performance, value addition and emotional rewards. It’s high-strength cement for skyscrapers, rapid-setting mixes for urgent builds, and green blends cutting CO2 emissions by up to 30 per cent. These products are developed to meet specific needs, backed by rigorous testing and certifications. A 2024 study, for example, highlighted the consistent performance of premium cements used in mega projects like the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Corridor, where 20,000 cubic meters were consumed daily—helping reduce rework costs by 12 per cent.
This reliability builds trust, turning one-time buyers into loyal customers. At the core of this transformation is branding. A bag of cement is no longer just a product—it’s a promise. As India’s real estate market heads toward a `112 lakh crore (US$1.3 trillion) valuation by FY34, strong brand identity will be a key differentiator. Marketing plays a vital role—telling stories on how a branded cement is able to realise the dream of a small-town Independent Home Builder (IHB). When campaigns spotlight a cement’s role in metro lines or sustainable housing, they create emotional resonance, instil confidence and trust. Customers begin to see the brand as a partner, not just a supplier.
Sustainability is another major driver. With India targeting net-zero emissions by 2070, the cement industry faces pressure to reduce its environmental footprint. In 2024, green cement adoption grew 15 per cent in urban areas, led by blended products using industrial by-products. These cements could save up to 300 kg of CO2 per tonne compared to traditional mixes. Communicating these benefits—using real data and practical examples—strengthens credibility with eco-conscious consumers, from architects to policymakers.
One more important aspect in premiumisation is about solving consumers’ problems and offering higher order value adds beyond the basic benefits. For instance, seepage is a big unsolved problem for any home owner and water-repellent segment is the most premium and fastest growing cement segment. Slag cement is another example where it commands a higher pricing power due to added benefit of providing a brighter finish.
Premiumisation, however, doesn’t come easy. It demands sustained investment in research, stringent quality control, and ongoing customer education. But the rewards—higher margins, stronger brand loyalty, and a competitive edge—are worth it. In 2025, with the cement industry anticipating 8 per cent sales growth, those who position cement as a branded, value-driven product will lead the way. They are not just selling cement—they’re building trust, shaping progress, and driving sustainable growth in a market ready for change.
There was a time when cement was viewed strictly as a commodity—sold in bulk, priced competitively and chosen mainly by institutional buyers focused on cost. Branding, in this environment, had limited space to flourish. But over the past decade, the sector has seen a quiet transformation. Cement is no longer just a grey powder sold by the bag. It’s becoming a branded product that consumers recognise, trust, and choose deliberately.
What’s behind this shift? A key factor is the rise of individual home builders and retail consumers. Unlike bulk buyers, these customers are personally invested in their decisions. They ask not just how much, but why this brand. They look for quality, consistency, service reliability, and increasingly, sustainability.
In response, marketing strategies have evolved. The focus has moved beyond pricing or distribution to understanding the end consumer—where they live, what they value, and how they engage. This has driven integrated media strategies that blend traditional channels with digital outreach, on-ground activations, and personalised content experiences. Today, messaging is crafted not just to inform, but to connect.
An emotional hook often tips the scale. Recent industry campaigns have leaned into cultural cues, celebrity associations and values like trust and resilience to build brand recall. Such branding creates affinity—transforming what was once a functional purchase into a considered choice.
Technology is also playing a transformative role in how cement is produced, marketed, and delivered. From advanced analytics and AI-based modelling to digital tracking and real-time logistics, companies are ensuring quality, improving efficiency, and enhancing customer experience. Brands that lead in these areas are setting benchmarks—earning both trust and a stronger reputation.
Ultimately, the journey from commodity to brand in cement is more than a marketing story—it’s a structural evolution. It reflects the changing landscape of construction and housing, where every material is a choice that signals quality, intent, and responsibility. Cement, once selected solely for its price, is now judged by what it stands for. And in that lies both the challenge and the opportunity for every player in the industry.

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Economy & Market

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

Published

2 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.