The government said it will soon address issues affecting the real estate sector after
industry bodies and homebuyers met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to flag their
concerns regarding liquidity crunch, demand slowdown and stalled projects.
Birla Corporation Ltd is looking to scale up its cement manufacturing capacity by over
60% to 25 million tonnes from the current 15.5 million tonnes with a total investment of
around ₹5,000 crore in the next four to five years.
The company has already commenced construction of the 3.9-mtpa greenfield project at
Mukutban in Maharashtra, expected to be complete by FY2022.
According to Pracheta Majumdar, Chief Executive Officer, the company is expected to
be a 25-30 million tonnes player. It will reach 25 million tonnes by 2024-25 and will add
another 5 million tonnes thereafter either through greenfield or an acquisition.
Birla Corporation is also setting up the second production line at Kundanganj in Uttar
Pradesh of 1.2 million tonnes to augment unit capacity to 3.6 million tonnes.
The expansion of the NCCW plant at Chanderia in Rajasthan has also begun.
It will add clinkerisation capacity of 4,80,000 tonnes which, in turn, can feed the
additional clinker needs of the Kundanganj grinding unit.
The company will also look to add another production line at its existing unit at Maihar in
Madhya Pradesh.
Birla Corporation has been able to ramp up capacity utilisation across its factories to well
over 95%. For the quarter ended June 30, 2019, the capacity utilisation was up at 98%,
as against 92% in the corresponding period last year.
The company had registered 4% volume growth in Q1FY20 and is hopeful of keeping the
momentum of growth in the coming quarters.
While Majumdar stresses on the need for adopting IT in a big way to ramp up capacity,
the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Sandip Ranjan Ghose, talks about the need for
premiumising cement sales.
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ) has shown its interest to develop a
port at Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu at the site of the Nagarjuna Oil Refinery that is undergoing
liquidation. It has planned six-million tonnes refinery including a captive port and a power
plant.
Sustainable development, investments in exploration will be way forward for mining & minerals industry , Business Standard, August 9, 2019
The significance of mining and minerals sector can be gauged from the fact that no area of
citizen’s daily life remains untouched by it. The mining and minerals sector has been
witnessing some dynamic changes over the past few years.
With the highest court in the country clamping down on the mining sector due to constant
environmental violations; year 2015 amendments in the MMDR(Minerals & Mining
Development & Regulation) Act; new norms to allocate blocs through auction and still
greater clarity needed to understand the National Exploration Policy 2019, the mining sector
has several challenges to overcome.
As per Sumanta Chaudhuri, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Government of India, For
mining, our motto is simple- ‘You are taking something from Mother Earth, you better give it
back.’ A pro-active policy of environmental mitigation is needed in the industry so that
problems of procuring environmental clearances and getting stuck in rigmarole stop. Such
steps will also improve the entire image of the sector as a whole.
The Indian Railways is in talks with Coal India Ltd (CIL), and the governments of Jharkhand
and West Bengal to partner it on a fresh lease for the 538-kilometre stretch of the Eastern
Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC). Earlier, the railways had planned to undertake the
project as a public-private partnership (PPP).
The railways is expected to float a tender for the Sonnagar (Bihar) to Dankuni (West
Bengal) stretch of the EDFC, which is expected to cost around Rs 15,000 crore by October.
The remaining EDFC is being funded by a $2.360-billion loan from the World Bank.
Ahead of the tender, the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCIL) is likely
to undertake road shows to sensitise potential investors and has already begun talks with
CIL, other public sector undertakings and the state governments for the completion of this
stretch, which is divided in two phases, sources said.
However, sources said that the company is yet to get official information in this regard. And
it has already invested in three dedicated coal corridors, parts of which have already been
completed. It is procuring its own rakes to ferry coal.
The Odisha government may not be able to generate big revenue from the eight iron ore
mines, having reserves of about 573 million tonnes and will be put on the block next week
due to the weak financials of steel companies.
Moreover, most of the steel companies have drawn major expansion plans and have
already committed huge capex for the same.
As per the Mining and Mineral Development Act, about 24 operational merchant mines will
shut operations in March 2020 and will be put on the block