Holcim mulls more quality assets buy in India

After acquiring majority stake in ACC and Ambuja Cements, Swiss cement major Holcim is open to more good quality assets buy in India. We are always open to acquisition. However, nothing is brewing, as of now," Onne van der Weijde, Holcim's Senior Vice President (South Asia) told PTI.
Weijde said that large capacity was not the prime criteria that Holcim was looking at, but the target company has to be a good fit into its existing portfolio.
"It has to be a good quality asset and a good fit into our portfolio," he said.
Holcim, the second-biggest player in the Indian market, has a combined annual capacity of more than 41 million tonnes through its Group companies, ACC and Ambuja Cements. It operates 24 plants in India.
ACC plans to increase its production capacity to 30.58 million tonnes a year in the next two years. Ambuja Cements produced 17.8 million tonnes of cement in 2008 and is on track to increase clinker capacity by 4.4 million tonnes by 2009-end.
Holcim has 46.21 per cent stake in ACC and 45.67 per cent stake in Ambuja Cements as on December 31, 2008.

Binani Cement eyes coal blocks in Indonesia

After Tata Power, Binani Cement, a subsidiary of Binani Industries, is looking to acquire coal blocks in Indonesia to meet its energy requirements, a company official said today.

Binani Cement Managing Director of Binani Cement Vinod Juneja said the company was eyeing coal blocks in Indonesia and would be finalised in the next few months. Juneja said the coal blocks have reserves of around 6 million tonnes per annum.

Besides, the company plans to commission its one mtpa capacity cement plant in Mauritius.
In India, Binani has a 6.5 mtpa cement plant at Rajashthan and two overseas units in Dubai and China.

In the last fiscal, the company clocked a turnover of Rs 1,900 crore. In West Bengal, Binani would market its cement brands for the first time, for which it had created a hub in Burdwan district in the state.

Holcim plans to buy 20% more in Ambuja

Swiss giant Holcim plans to increase its stake in Ambuja Cements to over 51% as sky-high growth rates, soaring prices and demand in the world’s second-largest cement market make consolidation a business imperative.

The move values Ambuja, which has a capacity of about 16 million tonnes, at about Rs 23,433 crore or about $350 per tonne of cement. In contrast, rival Ultratech, with a 13 million tonne capacity, is valued at about $160 per tonne. Ambuja shares climbed 1.72% to Rs 132.75 on Thursday. The shares have risen 4.61% over the past week but have fallen 1.81% over the month.

Nalco looks for JV partners

Aluminium major National Aluminium (Nalco) has decided to diversify into cement manufacturing and is looking for global joint venture partners to float a medium to large sized cement plant. Nalco’s proposed cement venture is part of its decision to use fly ash generated at its captive power plant at Angul in Orissa and convert it into sale-able products.

Nalco is primarily looking at the possibility of manufacturing Pozzo-lana Portland Cement (PPC). A byproduct of coal-fired power plants, fly ash can replace a proportion of the clinker used in cement plants. However, the company is also open to any other form of utilisation of fly ash in the JV.

(Source: Economic Times)