The April-June 2018 (Q1) report card of some major cement companies is out, and it has highlighted the major and persistent structural concern affecting the industry - the absence of price hikes.

Makarand Marathe, Director, Cement Division, Thyssenkrupp Industries India (tkII) believes that even as India’s demand for cement shows signs of gradual recovery, equipment makers need to prepare themselves to engage with an increasingly discerning customer.

Consolidation is in the full swing in the Indian Cement Industry. The pace has accelerated over the last four years. It has not been happening just because of operational reasons, but heavy debt built up by some players.

Automatic bag applicator or placer, specifically for PP/HDPE woven stitched bags because till date no technology supplier has developed such a machine for those kinds of bags.

The biggest global cement trend is overcapacity and the rise of China as a cement making superpower. I have spent a lot of time in China and the country is completely revamping its entire cement business to provide greater capacity and quality.

We are focusing on the clinker cooler, which is an important equipment when determining the overall fuel consumption of the pyro line because it recuperates heat of the clinker coming from kiln to the cooler.

As far as the Indian cement industry is concerned, it proactively factored in the advancements in technology a decade ago. That's why plants with 10,000 tonne per day capacity continue to operate with the same number of personnel as earlier.

NCB’s '15th International Seminar on Cement, Concrete and Building Materials’ witnessed nearly 1,000 delegates congregate in New Delhi to deliberate on cement, concrete and construction technologies.

Analysts across spectrum estimate that if only 25 per cent of houses are substituted, then the total incremental cement requirement per annum will be around 10 MT.