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

Cement Makers’ Margins To Fall Rs 50-75 Per Tonne Amid West Asia Conflict

Crisil Sees Margins Easing Despite Steady Demand

Published

2 weeks ago

July 29, 2026

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Crisil said operating margins of Indian cement manufacturers are expected to decline by Rs 50-75 per tonne (t) this fiscal to Rs 925-950 per t due to higher input costs triggered by the West Asia conflict. The analysis covered 18 cement companies accounting for nearly 90 per cent of India’s domestic cement capacity and noted margins had improved sharply to around Rs 1,000 per t in fiscal 2026.

Crisil noted that the reduction would be driven mainly by higher power and fuel costs, which account for about 30 per cent of total costs, as petcoke and imported coal prices have surged amid geopolitical uncertainties. Freight costs, which account for about a quarter of total costs, are also expected to remain elevated because of higher diesel prices. The impact on profitability is likely to be more pronounced in the first half of the fiscal year before easing commodity prices moderate cost pressures later.

The rating agency said steady domestic demand and strong balance sheets should keep credit profiles stable despite the moderation in margins. Green energy currently accounts for 35-40 per cent of the sector’s total electricity consumption and is expected to partly cushion higher energy costs. Operating cash flows are likely to remain resilient, supported by projected 6-7 per cent growth in cement demand this fiscal.

Crisil highlighted that demand growth will be driven primarily by infrastructure spending, which meets about one-third of sector consumption, and by a nearly 18 per cent higher budgetary allocation for core ministries that should support project execution. Weaker rural housing demand amid pressure on agricultural incomes from a possible below-average monsoon may be offset by improved urban housing demand supported by favourable home-loan rates and a strong pipeline of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban projects. Ongoing capacity additions will keep capital expenditure elevated and may lift net debt to EBITDA to between 1.2 and 1.4 times from around 1.0 time last fiscal, though ratios are expected to remain healthy.

Concrete

UltraTech Board Approves Rs 50 bn Fundraise Via NCDs

Company to issue half a million debentures for expansion plan

Published

2 weeks ago

July 28, 2026

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UltraTech Cement’s board of directors has approved raising Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 bn) through non?convertible debentures issued in rupees.

The finance committee cleared a proposal to issue up to 500,000 fully paid, unsecured, listed, rated, redeemable, rupee?denominated, non?convertible, non?cumulative debentures of Rs 1 lakh each (Rs 0.1 mn each), aggregating to the Rs 5,000 crore programme.

As of June 2026 the firm reported net debt of Rs 15,875 crore (Rs 158.75 bn) and said its capacity expansion projects under execution are backed by capital expenditure of about Rs 17,000 crore (Rs 170 bn) over the next two to two?and?a?half years.

UltraTech spent Rs 9,500 crore (Rs 95 bn) on capital expenditure in financial year 2026 and in April the group crossed 200.1 mn tonnes per annum of domestic grey cement capacity and 205.5 mn tonnes per annum of global capacity.

The chief financial officer indicated the company would take consolidated capacity beyond 242 mn tonnes per annum, with grey cement capacity reaching 212.7 mn tonnes per annum by the end of financial year 2027. He noted the net debt?to?earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation ratio stood at 0.87 times as of June 2026 and the company was confident of ending financial year 2027 with the ratio below one time.

In the first quarter of financial year 2026?27 UltraTech’s net profit attributable to owners rose 16.8 per cent year?on?year to Rs 2,599.3 crore (Rs 25.993 bn) and revenue from operations increased 15.9 per cent to Rs 24,648.20 crore (Rs 246.482 bn). The board approval is expected to complement internal cash flows as the company advances its expansion programme.

Concrete

Lokesh Lays Stone For Rs 31 Billion Cement Unit In Kadapa

Line-2 expansion to make Kadapa a major cement hub

Published

3 weeks 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.