The demand growth trend picked up steam in FY18. Expectations are rife that FY19 will consolidate these gains and result in higher capacity utilisation, if not pricing power.

Majority of our coverage companies reported volumes ahead of estimates, while realisations belied our forecast, making it the underlying theme for Q3FY18, said Edelweiss Research in its Q3FY18 (October-December 2017 quarter of 2017-18) Earnings Review.

Environmental protection norms that have been revised and updated since 2014 are considered not too stringent going by global benchmarks. But the Indian industry and authorities are still in the process of finding a common ground.

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.

Issue after issue, month after month, we discuss the market situation for the cement sector, and report on demand growth statistics, to the extent these are available. For quite some time now, expectations of a recovery of demand are mounting, what with all the talk about heightened activity levels in housing, infrastructure and smart cities.

'All the roads in the country will be converted into cement-concrete ones, to ensure their stability and durability'. Well, if that sounds like music to the ears of the cement industry, the musician is none other than our Minister of Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Nitin Gadkari.

According to news reports, UltraTech Cement's Rs 16,189 crore acquisition of the cement business of Jaiprakash Associates may be 'completed soon', according a top executive in the know of the situation.

The domestic cement industry has a long way to go to improve the country's low per capita consumption, a senior official has said. Joint Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Ravneet Kaur also said that the government would “support the cement industry to facilitate usage of alternate fuels and raw materials (AFR). “(The) Indian cement industry, currently producing 7 per cent of the global cement requirement, has a long way to go to improve (as) the country’s per capita consumption (is) at a dismal low,” an official statement quoted Kaur as saying.

The domestic cement industry has a long way to go to improve the country's low per capita consumption, a senior official has said.