Shree Cement bags CII Supply Chain Award Shree Cement Ltd, one of India´s leading cement manufacturers, has won the prestigious ´Excellence Award Under Cement Industry´ (SCALE) given out by CII on December 16, at New Delhi. CII, through its Institute of Logistics, organises the awards to encourage efficiency in the logistics and supply sector, and motivates the industry to achieve global standards.
The industry body also aims to facilitate learning for service providers and helps the user industry to highlight its logistics and supply chain excellence through these awards.
The award was given to Shree Cement for managing overall logistics costs along with enhancing customer experience with the help of its unique reverse bidding system in outward move¡ments, high focus on data analytics and implementation of new technologies for automation.
Yogesh Mehta, Head-Logistics & Joint Vice President (Commercial), Shree Cement, said, ´In the cement industry, distribution cost accounts for 20-22 per cent of sale value. Thus, to be successful in the cement business, one needs to master the art of delivering at the most optimised logistical cost. Shree Cement is equally focused on optimising logistics cost and faster delivery. If one is not able to serve the market at the right time, then the sale will be lost forever.´
Competition Commission fines seven cement firms for bid-rigging The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has imposed a penalty of nearly Rs 206 crore on seven cement companies for alleged bid-rigging and cartelisation.
The companies impacted by the order are Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement, Jaiprakash Associates, JK Cement, Ambuja Cements, ACC and JK Lakshmi Cement. They have been penalised for violating competition norms with regard to a tender floated by a Haryana-based agency in 2012.
The regulator says that mobile text messages and calls made among the officials of the cement companies during the particular period also confirmed collusion. CCI had earlier also imposed a fine on cement firms for anti-competitive business practices.
In a 120-page order, CCI said that the seven companies violated competition norms and also directed them to ´cease and desist´ from such activities.
The regulator decided to slap penalties on the companies, equivalent to 0.3 per cent of their average turnover, for three financial years. The total fine amounts to around Rs 206 crore.
UltraTech has been directed to pay a fine of Rs 68.30 crore, and Jaiprakash Associates will pay Rs 38.02 crore. The fines on the others are - Shree Cement (Rs 18.44 crore), JK Cement (Rs 9.26 crore), Ambuja Cement (Rs 29.84 crore), ACC (Rs 35.32 crore) and JK Lakshmi Cement (Rs 6.55 crore).
The order has come on a complaint filed by the Director, Supplies and Disposals, Haryana, a procurement agency. It was alleged that the cement makers had formed a cartel and quoted higher bid prices for a tender floated in 2012. CCI had ordered a detailed probe into the matter in 2014.
Fine to impact operating profit, the penalty imposed by CCI will cut around 2 per cent of the operating profits of these companies and will be credit neutral on the firms due to their low leverage levels, says India Ratings and Research.
The cement industry in India is unique, with around 60 per cent of the industry´s total capacity being controlled by the top eight players. The rest of the industry is highly fragmented, with small- to medium-sized companies, mostly with unecono¡mical size of operations.
To the extent regulatory intervention limits coordinate supplier actions with respect to price and quantity, smaller firms with uneconomic cost structures will become uncompetitive and face significant deterioration in their credit profiles.
As such, the level of fragmentation in the industry is expected to reduce and vertically integrated companies are likely to gain market share. Source: THE HINDU BUSINESSLINE
JSW Cement to increase capacity at Bellary plant JSW Cement Ltd, part of the $11 billion JSW Group, is set to increase its cement manufacturing capacity from the current 1 MTPA to 3.4 MTPA at its Bellary plant. ´We are increasing the cement manufacturing capacity from the current 1 MTPA to 3.4 MTPA. The additional capacity will help JSW Cement to strengthen its distribution network in high-demand potential areas throughout south India,´ said a company statement.
The company will increase cement plant capacity in its Vijayanagar grinding facility to further strengthen its position in the cement industry, especially in Karnataka and Kerala.
´JSW Cement is one of the fastest growing cement companies in India today. We have a distribution network of 1,800 dealers and approximately 5,000 sub-dealers across the southern market, Maharashtra, Goa and Odisha. This new additional facility will help us to further increase our network in the southern markets and help us serve our customers better,´ said JSW Cement Director & CEO Anil Kumar Pillai. The additional facility is highly energy efficient and would churn out superior quality PSC cement and GGBS, Pillai said. JSW Cement had entered the cement market in 2009 with a vision to ensure a sustainable future for the country by producing eco-friendly cement, using industrial by-products such as slag. Its plants at Vijayanagar in Karnataka, Nandyal in Andhra Pradesh and Dolvi in Maharashtra utilise slag from the JSW steel plants to produce green cement.
Draft rules finalised for utilising solid waste for cement production According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), around 7.4 million tonnes (MT) of hazardous waste is annually generated in India, out of which around 3.98 MT is recyclable and can be used as an energy resource. Incidents like the massive fire in Mumbai´s landfill site Deonar last year make it important to recycle solid waste. With landfill sites across major cities overflowing, CPCB has now come out with fresh draft guidelines proposing use of solid and industrial waste as fuel in the cement industry to ensure that millions of tonnes of hazardous waste are utilised.
The production of cement in India is about 300 MT per annum, for which estimated coal and raw material (limestone, iron ore, clay and bauxite, etc) requirement is 50 MT per annum and 450 MT per annum, respectively.
´The country, therefore, has vast potential to utilise large quantum of waste such as non-recyclable hazardous and other wastes, segregated combustible fractions from Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW) and Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), non-hazardous industrial wastes, plastics wastes, tyre wastes and non-usable biomass as an alternative fuel and raw material (AFR) in cement kilns,´ say the CPCB draft guidelines.
Source: THE INDIAN EXPRESS