The organised segment continues to focus on innovative special concrete, quality and timely delivery, while the unorganised players tend to reduce the operating costs by lower compliances tax evasions and employing unskilled labour at cheaper costs, says Atul Desai.

Indian cement industry is among the best in the world when it comes to energy efficiency. However, specialised training is essential to face and overcome certain unique challenges of the Indian cement industry.

“Cement production continues to do well with the low base effect helping growth. Also it is indicative of advance in infra spending on roads by the government and housing – especially affordable housing,” said CARE Ratings in a recent report.

The performance of 3,292 companies in Q1 FY19 over the last year (Q1 FY18) reveals an improvement, with net sales registering a double-digit growth during the quarter over Q1 FY18 performance.

GST has scored a few goals – subsuming multiple taxes and a common rate structure – over the last one year. But for achieving simplification and reaping its full efficiency, it has a long way to go.

India has miles to go in terms of cement consumption and there is enough headroom for strong cement demand.

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.

Cement is never used as cement alone but is always converted to a value-added product in practice.

The notion of VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity) was introduced by the United States of America’s Army War College to describe the multilateral world, which resulted from the end of Cold War post 1989.