Cement makers make a beeline to NE

To make most out of the emerging future business avenues in the country's cement sector due to increasing demand from the real estate and road infra segments, new players are entering into the cement making and existing ones are increasing their manufacturing capacities. A latest case in point is that of the Emami Group, which has recently forayed into the cement making. Another instance of Nirma, which has recently sealed a buyout deal of Lafarge, India's 11-million tons (mt) cement business. Moreover, Shree Cement proposed investments have laid the ground for cement players eyeing more revenues from eastern parts of India. According to H M Bangur, Managing Director of Shree Cement, while the cement industry nationally will grow by five per cent this year, the growth in east India will be 10%, which will make this region a key priority for the cement players. Of the cement national production of 300 million tons (mt) per annum, the contribution of eastern region with 55 mt capacity is 17-18%. The national capacity at the moment is 370 mt per annum. With demand expected to scale up to 600 mt over the next 10 years, the capacity would need to be at least 700 mt, he added. Until recently, cement consumption in the eastern region remained lower than the national average. This situation will change as the per capita consumption of cement in the east is likely to increase and that the contribution from the eastern market to the national production will increase marginally this year itself. While Chhattisgarh seems to be the favourite among the players, eyeing the eastern market, thanks to Emami Cement, Shree Cement, Dalmia Bharat and for others, Jharkhand, West Bengal, and Odisha, are also in line for setting up cement making units.