Concrete

Modern manufacturing is becoming challenging

Published

4 weeks ago

June 17, 2026

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Gaurav K Mathur, Director & Chief Executive, Global Technical Services, argues that lubrication excellence is no longer a maintenance function but a strategic discipline that directly influences reliability, sustainability, and manufacturing profitability.

In an industry where contamination, equipment wear, and unplanned downtime can quietly erode profitability, lubrication is emerging as a critical pillar of operational excellence. Gaurav K Mathur explains how Total Lubrication Management (TLM), oil diagnostics, condition monitoring, and AI-driven reliability intelligence are transforming maintenance strategies across cement plants. He highlights why contamination control, prescriptive maintenance, and closer collaboration between OEMs, lubricant suppliers, and asset owners will be essential for achieving higher equipment reliability, lower lifecycle costs, and long-term sustainability.

How are lubricant technologies evolving to meet the demanding operating conditions of modern cement plants?
Modern manufacturing is becoming increasingly challenging due to rising costs and shrinking profit margins. In this context, sustainability is no longer optional; it has become essential from both economic and environmental perspectives. As industries strive to remain competitive, tribologists and researchers are actively developing advanced lubricant solutions that not only deliver superior lubrication performance but also enhance energy efficiency and extend equipment life.
A well-engineered combination of base oils and additives plays a critical role in achieving the optimal balance between cost and performance. Through innovative formulations, manufacturers can significantly improve operational efficiency while supporting sustainability objectives. Lowering
the coefficient of friction in base oils through effective additive blending remains a key focus area for achieving these benefits.
However, in industries such as cement manufacturing, operational conditions are exceptionally harsh. High levels of dust and contaminants, along with extreme environments, make lubrication management significantly more complex. In such conditions, contamination becomes a critical barrier to achieving the full potential of high-performance lubricants. Therefore, ensuring contamination-free lubrication and implementing robust contamination control strategies within lubrication systems, particularly in sumps, is essential. Even the most advanced lubricants cannot deliver expected performance if lubrication practices are poorly managed. Ineffective lubrication management ultimately leads to wasted resources, reduced equipment life, and increased operational costs.
In essence, while selecting the right lubricant is important, disciplined lubrication practices and contamination control are equally vital to fully realise both performance and sustainability benefits.

How is the cement industry balancing sustainability goals with the need for heavy-duty lubrication performance?
Industry has progressively adopted the concept of Total Lubrication Management (TLM), which encompasses all critical aspects of lubrication, including lubricant indenting, storage, handling, dispensing, and contamination control. A well-structured and scientifically driven lubrication approach plays a vital role in enhancing lubricant life and ensuring optimal equipment performance.
Lubricants, when handled with proper care, discipline, and sensitivity, deliver significantly better reliability and efficiency. Organisations today are increasingly focusing on selecting the right balance between optimum lubricant quality and desired service life, rather than relying solely on periodic replacement practices. Hydrocarbon-based lubricants, in principle, do not have a fixed expiry date. Their usable life can be extended substantially through effective condition monitoring and contamination control. Therefore, lubricant life is less a function of time and more dependent on the lubrication strategy adopted and its consistency in implementation.
This approach aligns with modern TLM practices, where condition-based maintenance, contamination control, and systematic monitoring enhance both lubricant longevity and overall asset reliability.

In what ways are predictive maintenance and lubricant monitoring reshaping maintenance strategies in cement manufacturing?
Oil in a machine plays a role similar to blood in the human body. Just as blood diagnostics reveal the health condition of a person, oil analysis provides deep insights into both the lubricant condition and the mechanical health of equipment.
Having an oil analysis laboratory within the plant provides significant advantages, as test results are available immediately. This short turnaround time is critical because mechanical wear can begin to develop within 48 hours. Therefore, an on-site laboratory for monitoring oil condition and machine wear becomes essential for proactive maintenance and preventing equipment failure.
Through systematic oil and grease analysis, supported by professionals with extensive maintenance and lubrication expertise, organisations can identify wear patterns, contamination, and early signs of failure. This enables data-driven decisions that go beyond reactive or preventive maintenance. With advancements in analytics and domain expertise, the industry is moving from predictive maintenance to prescriptive maintenance. Predictive maintenance identifies what is likely to fail and when.
Prescriptive maintenance goes a step further by recommending what actions to take, why, and how to prevent recurrence. This shift is equivalent to having an expert doctor, not only diagnosing a condition but also prescribing precise treatment and, in some cases, eliminating the root cause entirely.
Global Technical Services brings over 25 years of experience in Total Lubrication Management. With a core team rooted in petroleum and maintenance backgrounds, the organisation has developed strong capabilities in:
• Lubricant performance evaluation
• Equipment condition monitoring
• Failure analysis and prevention strategies
• Maintenance optimisation
Building on the expertise of REMO: AI-Powered Reliability Intelligence, a machine learning-based AI platform named REMO (Reliable Equipment Manufacturing Operations) has been developed. REMO aims to:
• Predict Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of both lubricants and assets
• Analyse complex datasets from oil diagnostics and operating conditions
• Deliver actionable, prescriptive insights for maintenance teams
The model is continuously evolving, with ongoing research focused on achieving higher maturity, potentially enabling future predictions from even a single data point.
The Future: Intelligent, Prescriptive Reliability.
The combination of:
• Domain expertise
• Oil diagnostics
• AI-driven intelligence
is shaping a future where maintenance becomes proactive, precise, and outcome-driven.
In simple terms, the industry is entering an era where machines are monitored like patients-continuously, intelligently, and with expert-backed recommendations that ensure reliability, efficiency, and longevity.

What are the biggest lubrication challenges faced in critical cement equipment such as kilns, crushers, and gear systems?
With diminishing interest among youth in pursuing careers in core industries, organisations across the globe are facing a significant talent gap. Despite billions of dollars invested in infrastructure and industrial assets, the absence of skilled domain experts threatens to make these investments underutilised and less productive.
We continue to live in an industrial world that depends heavily on advanced materials and cost-efficient production systems. However, sustaining this ecosystem requires not only capital investment but also a capable workforce to operate, maintain, and innovate within it. The shortage of proficient professionals is therefore emerging as a critical challenge.
To address this gap, industries must increasingly rely on systems, mechanisation, robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence as complementary forces. These technologies are not replacements for humans, but enablers that can bridge capability gaps and enhance productivity. Machine learning and artificial intelligence, in particular, will play a pivotal role in supporting management decision-making through data-driven insights and predictive analytics.
The future of industry will depend on how effectively organisations balance human expertise with technological advancement to build resilient, efficient, and sustainable operations.

How do you see synthetic and specialty lubricants influencing the future efficiency of Indian cement plants?
At the end of the day, decisions should be driven by the overall cost of manufacturing and the total cost of ownership (TCO). Regardless of the lubricant selected, these factors must be addressed by the product.
With diminishing margins, decision-making is increasingly shifting toward a TCO-based evaluation rather than just upfront performance claims. While there may be a bias toward recommending high-performance products, the critical question remains: if the expected maximum service life cannot be realised due to operational constraints, is the investment justified?
In such cases, the focus must shift from theoretical performance to achievable value in real operating conditions. A solution that delivers consistent, optimised performance within constraints often provides better value than a premium product whose full potential cannot be utilised.
How important is collaboration between lubricant providers, OEMs, and cement manufacturers in driving operational excellence?
OEMs possess a deep understanding of the metallurgy and design limitations of equipment, while lubricant providers bring expertise in tribological requirements specific to each application. The cement plant asset owner, in turn, defines the overarching operational and strategic objectives.
Bridging these three critical stakeholders are professional lubrication companies, which act as reliability and sustainability partners. Organisations such as Global Technical Services play this integrative role by implementing Total Lubrication Management (TLM) across core industries, including cement.
TLM is a holistic concept that encompasses all aspects of lubrication, ranging from product selection and storage to application, monitoring, and optimisation, with the ultimate goal of operating assets in alignment with management’s performance, reliability, and sustainability objectives.

Kanika Mathur

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Cement Sector Faces Sluggish Growth in First Half of FY27

April Price Hikes Unlikely To Offset Margin Decline

Published

10 minutes ago

July 13, 2026

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Nuvama Institutional Equities has warned that India’s cement industry is expected to record subdued volume growth in the first half of fiscal year 2026-27 before a recovery in the second half. The brokerage assessed that price increases implemented in April 2026 will be insufficient to offset an overall decline in sector profitability. It attributed the outlook to weak demand and fresh capacity additions scheduled during fiscal years 2026-27 and 2027-28 that are likely to keep prices under pressure.

The report noted that demand was sluggish in April and May 2026 owing to global uncertainty, labour shortages, heatwaves, constraints in raw materials and unseasonal rainfall. Producers raised prices across regions in April to mitigate rising petcoke costs and higher packaging expenses, but the increases proved short lived. Nuvama reported that standard petcoke prices rose to USD153/t, around USD41/t higher than in the third quarter of fiscal year 2025-26.

Price correction followed weaker demand, limiting the net increase to about Rs 10-12 per bag by the end of the quarter. Imported petcoke prices have since fallen to USD132/t from a recent peak of USD168/t, although they remained roughly USD20/t higher quarter on quarter. The brokerage expected the higher input cost impact to begin reflecting from late quarter one of FY27 and to continue into early quarter two.

Nuvama also estimated that crude linked increases were likely to raise packaging costs by about Rs 120-150/t and to exert upward pressure on freight. It warned that soft demand combined with significant new supply coming on stream in FY27-28 would keep pricing under strain and constrain near term margin recovery. The report concluded that volume growth was likely to be sluggish in the first half of FY27 before recovering in the second half.

Concrete

Nuvoco Vistas launches Limla cement plant, expands Gujarat footprint

Published

6 hours ago

July 13, 2026

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Nuvoco Vistas opens a 2 MMTPA grinding unit at Limla, entering Gujarat and advancing its target of 35 MMTPA capacity by FY 2028.

Surat (Gujarat)

Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Ltd, a part of Nirma Group and one of India’s leading building materials company, has inaugurated the Limla Cement Plant in Surat (Gujarat), one of Vadraj Cement Limited’s (VCL) principal manufacturing facilities. The commissioning represents a key milestone in Nuvoco’s acquisition and restoration of VCL, while supporting the company’s expansion across the Western Indian cement market.

Vadraj Cement Limited is a subsidiary of Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Limited and has installed cement capacity of 6 MMTPA across its assets. The Limla inauguration therefore represents the first operational step in the acquired platform’s wider revival, while the Kutch facilities provide clinker supply, mineral security and coastal logistics support for the western business.

Nuvoco completed its acquisition of Vadraj Cement Limited, then under the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process, after paying a consideration of Rs 1,800 crore in June 2025. VCL’s asset portfolio comprises a clinker unit at Kutch and a grinding unit at Limla in Surat. It also includes high-quality captive limestone reserves and a captive jetty at Kutch, supporting more efficient logistics. Following the takeover, Nuvoco began an extensive programme of restoration, refurbishment and expansion at both locations, leading to the commissioning of the Limla plant.

The Limla Cement Plant is expected to support a phased increase in sales volumes across Gujarat. It will also help Nuvoco supply neighbouring markets in Western Maharashtra and release cement capacity from its northern plants, which can consequently be redirected towards markets in North India. The plant will manufacture a full portfolio comprising Ordinary Portland Cement, Portland Slag Cement, Portland Pozzolana Cement and Portland Composite Cement. It will additionally produce the complete Nuvoco Duraguard range, including the premium Nuvoco Duraguard Microfibre product. The acquisition is also expected to generate operational synergies with Nuvoco’s existing plants at Nimbol and Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, improving logistics optimisation and market reach across important regional markets.

The grinding unit at the Limla Cement Plant was completed ahead of schedule, with 2 MMTPA of capacity now inaugurated to expand Nuvoco’s operating scale and customer reach. After Vadraj Cement’s assets become fully operational, plants in North and West India are expected to account for nearly 40 per cent of Nuvoco’s total cement capacity. This will broaden the company’s manufacturing network, strengthen access to high-growth markets and support its plan to increase consolidated cement capacity to 35 MMTPA by FY 2028, reinforcing its longer-term growth strategy.

Commenting on the development, Jayakumar Krishnaswamy, Managing Director, Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd, said: “The inauguration of the Limla Grinding Unit in Surat is an important milestone in Nuvoco’s growth journey and demonstrates our commitment to disciplined, value-accretive expansion. Gujarat is strategically significant for Nuvoco, with substantial opportunities arising from infrastructure investment, industrial growth, rapid urbanisation and continuing demand from the housing and construction sectors. The facility strengthens our regional footprint, improves operational flexibility and increases our ability to serve customers across northern and western markets with greater reliability and efficiency.”

He added: “Through the Vadraj acquisition, we have refurbished and restarted a strategically important asset, returning it to operations in record time through strong execution and collaboration between teams. The achievement demonstrates our ability to create value from acquired assets, fulfil our commitments and retain the confidence of stakeholders. It also highlights the strength of our project delivery capabilities and our continued focus on building sustainable, profitable growth over the long term.”

Nuvoco Vistas Corporation Limited is a building materials company whose vision is to build a safer, smarter and more sustainable world. It is among the leading players in East India and has a significant presence across North and West India. Nuvoco began operations in 2014 with a greenfield cement plant at Nimbol, Rajasthan. It later acquired Lafarge India Limited, which had entered India in 1999, followed by Emami Cement Limited in 2020 and Vadraj Cement Limited in April 2025. The company has also announced an expansion in eastern India through a new grinding mill at the Arasmeta Cement Plant, supported by several debottlenecking programmes involving equipment upgrades, process improvements and internal capacity initiatives. These developments place Nuvoco on track to achieve total cement capacity of approximately 35 MMTPA. The company reported total income of Rs 11,362 crore in FY 2025-26, reflecting its continuing growth trajectory.

Nuvoco operates a diversified portfolio across three segments: Cement, Ready-Mix Concrete and Modern Building Materials. Its cement portfolio includes Concreto, Duraguard, Double Bull, PSC, Nirmax and Infracem, covering Ordinary Portland Cement, Portland Slag Cement, Portland Pozzolana Cement and Portland Composite Cement. Its pan-India RMX business provides value-added products under Concreto for performance concrete, Artiste for decorative concrete, InstaMix for ready-to-use bagged concrete, X-Con covering M20 to M60 grades, and Ecodure for specialised green concrete. Nuvoco has supplied materials to projects including the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train, Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, Aquatic Gallery at Science City in Ahmedabad, and metro railway projects in Delhi, Jaipur, Noida and Mumbai.

Concrete

Cement Prices To Hold Steady Amid Monsoon Slump

Centrum report says demand weakness will limit hikes

Published

1 week ago

July 6, 2026

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Centrum, a financial services firm, has reported that cement prices are likely to remain largely unchanged in July as weak demand during the monsoon season constrains pricing power. The report noted that construction activity remained subdued in the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 owing to labour shortages and slower execution of government projects. While June showed some volume recovery driven by delayed monsoons and quarter end sales, dealers are cautious about sustaining any price increases.

The analysis suggested that seasonal slowdown related to monsoon will prolong demand and pricing challenges through the second quarter. Dealers saw most recent attempts at price hikes as protective measures rather than genuine shifts in market fundamentals. They signalled that pockets of demand in select regions could prompt isolated adjustments but that broad based increases were unlikely while construction activity remained weak. Market participants therefore expected a cautious stance on pricing.

The report highlighted that despite intermittent recovery in shipments during June, the underlying demand trajectory remained muted as monsoon hampered site level activity and logistics. Commercial builders and retail dealers both reported constrained order books and slower payment cycles, which in turn reduced room for margin expansion among manufacturers. Analysts noted that unless government project execution accelerates markedly, demand improvement would be gradual. Price setters were thus likely to focus on protecting market shares rather than pursuing aggressive increases.

Market watchers said the near term outlook would be shaped by monsoon progress and fiscal spending patterns, with any acceleration in public works offering the most tangible support. Traders expected that regional variations would persist and that trade flows between surplus and deficit centres would determine local price movements. The report concluded that stakeholders should prepare for a period of subdued pricing until demand signals strengthen.