Cement Industry in India is on a roll at the moment. Driven by a
booming real estate sector, global demand and increased activity in
infrastructure development such as state and national highways, the
cement industry has witnessed tremendous growth. Production capacity has
gone up and top cement companies of the world are vying to enter the
Indian market, thereby sparking off a spate of mergers and acquisitions.
Indian cement industry is currently ranked second in the world.
The origins of Indian cement industry can be traced back to 1914 when
the first unit was set-up at Porbandar with a capacity of 1000 tonnes.
Today cement industry comprises of 125 large cement plants and more than
300 mini cement plants. The Cement Corporation of India, which is a
Central Public Sector Undertaking, has 10 units. There are 10 large
cement plants owned by various State Governments. Cement industry in
India has also made tremendous strides in technological upgradation and
assimilation of latest technology. Presently, 93 per cent of the total
capacity in the industry is based on modern and environment-friendly dry
process technology. The induction of advanced technology has helped the
industry immensely to conserve energy and fuel and to save materials
substantially. Indian cement industry has also acquired technical
capability to produce different types of cement like Ordinary Portland
Cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), Portland Blast Furnace
Slag Cement (PBFS), Oil Well Cement, Rapid Hardening Portland Cement,
Sulphate Resisting Portland Cement, White Cement etc. Some of the major
clusters of cement industry in India are: Satna (Madhya Pradesh),
Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Gulbarga (Karnataka), Yerranguntla (Andhra
Pradesh), Nalgonda (Andhra Pradesh), Bilaspur (Chattisgarh), and
Chandoria (Rajasthan).
Cement industry in India is currently going through a consolidation
phase. Some examples of consolidation in the Indian cement industry are:
Gujarat Ambuja taking a stake of 14 per cent in ACC, and taking over DLF
Cements and Modi Cement; ACC taking over IDCOL; India Cement taking over
Raasi Cement and Sri Vishnu Cement; and Grasim's acquisition of the
cement business of L&T, Indian Rayon's cement division, and Sri
Digvijay Cements. Foreign cement companies are also picking up stakes in
large Indian cement companies. Swiss cement major Holcim has picked up
14.8 per cent of the promoters' stake in Gujarat Ambuja Cements (GACL).
Holcim's acquisition has led to the emergence of two major groups in the
Indian cement industry, the Holcim-ACC-Gujarat Ambuja Cements combine
and the Aditya Birla group through Grasim Industries and Ultratech
Cement. Lafarge, the French cement major has acquired the cement plants
of Raymond and Tisco. Italy based Italcementi has acquired a stake in
the K.K. Birla promoted Zuari Industries' cement plant in Andhra
Pradesh, and German cement company Heidelberg Cement has entered into an
equal joint-venture agreement with S P Lohia Group controlled Indo-Rama
Cement.
Issues concerning Cement Industry
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