Concrete

Digitisation is very significant in today’s times

Published

3 years ago

April 12, 2023

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Swapnil Shah, Founder and CEO, Freight Tiger, emphasises the need to digitise logistics processes for better management and optimum productivity.

What is the role of digitalisation in optimising the distribution and logistics
of cement?
Digitalisation plays a huge role. It has a massive impact and almost every customer we work with today has a chief digital officer. Digitisation is very significant in today’s times. Companies are also investing in dedicated digital teams and it is happening across all industries. Industry leaders are not only hiring digital experts for their operations but are also involved with the same for their business. This is about digitalisation only from an impact involvement point of view.
Looking into the details of what digitisation means, there are a whole lot of things that are happening today. To share a few examples,

It allows the ability to have visibility into every delivery in terms of location, ETA, etc. Customers are consuming it for their own use, within their company, and they want to give that visibility to their end customer, too. So, the most basic use of digitalisation is bringing visibility for every order to customers and helping them plan better.
Being digital allows companies to track their footprint, get data analytics, understand issues with their services and analyse their costs. This helps them make many distribution decisions based on location data, average transit times, lead distance and more.
Often cement deliveries get diverted and this is a huge problem that most service providers are trying to resolve. With digitalisation and use of technology, cement makers can keep a track of their actual end user and understand their issues and try to work on them.

How can your system make a difference in managing cost efficiency for the cement industry?
We essentially give transportation management software and a visibility platform. Transportation management software is changing rapidly today. Freight Tiger builds a unifying platform as a connective tissue among all IT platforms, stakeholders and vendors. That is the first role we play. We help our customers manage order to delivery timelines in a very tight manner.
Often there are minor issues, like distances not being correct for which freight is paid and sometimes there is backloading at cement plants. In these cases, Freight Tiger allows customers to make sure the distances are correct. If diversions or backloading happens, it gives visibility into it. That’s a unique solution that we provide.
Measurement of performance is another area where we play a role. In terms of performance of distribution footprint, optimised lead time, per kilometre rate, lead distance, free trade routes etc. Freight Tiger allows you to understand service quality and its competitive edge over the market in terms of the delivery SLAs. We allow companies to measure and influence all of this in their operations.

Tell us about 360-degree management of freight operations for the cement industry through your platform.
On the one hand, you are sourcing raw material, and on the other, you are making all these deliveries either through your distribution footprint or directly from the plant. So, a 360-degree approach means the total cost of raw material sourcing logistics, the whole cost end-to-end, day-to-day distribution, percentage of deliveries directly serviced through plants versus through a series of distribution layers.

How do you connect the Freight ecosystem for the cement industry with your platform?
Freight Tiger is a technology- and a product-first company. We are a neutral party to all that happens in our customers’ environment.
What I mean by neutral is we do not play the role of an aggregator or a logistics service provider. We have no conflict with the existing logistics service providers that the cement company uses. We integrate telematics vendors. We have done close to 200 telematics company integrations, so we stay neutral. We believe that collaboration and neutrality will take us in the industry a lot farther than just trying to remove someone from the value system.
These two are very pivotal when you think about Freight Tiger as a player in this ecosystem.

What are the key pain points in the logistics of cement. How can you help resolve the same?
First and foremost, there is inefficiency and waiting during loading or unloading of the material at the plants. Transit times also are not monitored well. So, part of the inefficiency is because people have to wait due to space constraints or other reasons.
Secondly, cement organisations often have to service their customers in a relatively tighter delivery window. That is a pain point that involves making day-to-day decisions about choosing the right way to service the customers at an optimum cost, without compromising the quality of product or service.
Another major pain point is that cement organisations do not know where their product is unloading. This means that they do not know their end consumer. This is a unique problem in the cement industry because deliveries get diverted. Participants in the ecosystem may divert the deliveries based on requirements. So, knowing the exact unloading location and knowing the end customer is a massive gap in the cement industry.
Digitising proof of delivery and freight invoicing is something we’ve never seen before. Not only for the cement companies, but everyone who works in the value chain – the trucker, the logistics provider, the transporter – each one of them can benefit from this and that would be a big step to remove paper trails and make them into digital records. When we think about EPOD and digital freight invoicing that you do at the end of the day ensures all stakeholders are benefited from it. Cement companies have contracts with logistics providers or transporters or they sometimes hire fleet owners and trucks from the market, if they do not have their own. Any solution or change ultimately needs to impact everyone in the ecosystem. EPOD and digital freight invoicing achieves just that by easing the operations for everyone.

How do you foresee the changing face of logistics for the Indian cement industry?
It is my understanding that as a cement manufacturer, I would like to know my customer or where my product is exactly getting unloaded, instead of directionally knowing where the product is headed to. Another important factor is sustainability, whereas as a manufacturer or distributor the target would be to have the same or more deliveries by travelling less, optimising and reducing empty miles.
Cement companies are also moving towards alternative fuel vehicles, electric vehicles for some part of their delivery. I see that as a big change. And overall, analytics and how some sort of machine learning AI can help me make better decisions day to day. That is also on everyone’s mind. And, I think it is going to transform how people make decisions going forward. Those are the few things I will say are quite important as we look at the future.

–Kanika Mathur

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The need of present time is stronger buildings, industrial or common utility buildings, such as Malls, Railway stations, hospitals, offices, bridges etc. For this, there is need of long durable, tough and stable concrete, which could stand under normal and seismic conditions. Tough railway bridges are required for bullet trains to pass without any damage. Railway tunnels, sea-links, coastal roads, bridges and multistorey buildings, are the need of the hour. The question comes, is the normal cement called OPC is sufficient to take care of such requirements or better combination of cements and sand mixtures is required?

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Concrete

NCB Signs MoU With Cement Manufacturer To Boost Construction Skills

Partnership to deliver nationwide training and certification

Published

1 week ago

March 31, 2026

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The National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB) has signed a memorandum of understanding with a leading cement manufacturer to strengthen skill development and capacity building in the construction sector. The agreement was formalised at NCB premises in Ballabgarh and was signed by the Director General of NCB, Dr L. P. Singh, and the head of technical services at UltraTech Cement Limited, Er Rahul Goel. The collaboration seeks to bring institutional resources and industry expertise into a structured national training effort.

The partnership will deliver structured training and certification programmes across the country aimed at enhancing the capabilities of civil engineers, ready?mix concrete (RMC) professionals, contractors, construction workers and masons. Programme curricula will cover material quality testing, concrete mix proportioning, durability assessment and sustainable construction practices to support improved construction outcomes. Emphasis is to be placed on standardised assessment and certification to raise practice levels across diverse construction roles.

Practical learning elements will include workshops, site demonstrations, technical seminars and exposure visits to plants and RMC facilities to strengthen applied skills and on?site decision making. The Director General indicated confidence that a large number of professionals and workers would be trained over the next three to five years under the initiative. The partnership is designed to complement flagship government schemes such as the Skill India Mission and to align training outputs with national infrastructure priorities.

By combining the council’s technical mandate with industry experience, the initiative aims to develop a more skilled and quality?conscious workforce capable of meeting rising demand in infrastructure and housing. NCB will continue to coordinate programme delivery and quality assurance while industry partners provide practical exposure and technical inputs. The collaboration is expected to support long?term capacity building and more sustainable construction practices nationwide.

Concrete

JSW Cement Commissions Nagaur Plant, Enters North India

New Rajasthan unit boosts capacity to 24.1 MTPA and expands reach

Published

1 week ago

March 30, 2026

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JSW Cement has strengthened its national presence by commencing production at its greenfield integrated cement plant in Nagaur, Rajasthan, marking its entry into the north Indian market.

With this commissioning, the company’s installed grinding capacity has increased to 24.1 MTPA, while total clinker capacity, including its joint venture operations, stands at 9.74 MTPA.

The Nagaur facility comprises a 3.30 MTPA clinkerisation unit and a 2.50 MTPA cement grinding unit, with an additional 1.00 MTPA grinding capacity currently under development. Strategically located, the plant is positioned to serve high-growth markets across Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab and the NCR.

The project has been funded through a mix of equity and long-term debt, with Rs 800 crore allocated from IPO proceeds towards part-financing the unit.

Parth Jindal, Managing Director, JSW Cement, stated that the commissioning marks a key milestone in the company’s ambition to become a pan-India player. He added that the project was completed within 21 months and positions the company to achieve its targeted capacity of 41.85 MTPA by FY29.

Nilesh Narwekar, CEO, JSW Cement, highlighted that the expansion aligns with the company’s strategy to tap into rapidly growing northern markets driven by infrastructure development. He noted that the company remains focused on delivering high-quality, eco-friendly cement solutions while progressing towards its long-term capacity goal of 60 MTPA.

The Nagaur plant has been designed with sustainability features, including co-processing of alternative fuels and a 7 km overland belt conveyor for limestone transport to reduce road emissions. The facility will also incorporate a 16 MW Waste Heat Recovery System to improve energy efficiency and lower its carbon footprint.

JSW Cement, part of the JSW Group, operates across the building materials value chain and currently has eight plants across India, along with a clinker unit in the UAE through its joint venture.