Indian cement market stabilising: Holcim

Building material major Holcim, which owns majority stake in ACC Ltd and Ambuja Cements, today said the Indian cement market has begun to stabilise since the beginning of the year resulting in stable volumes.
"The market situation in India began to stabilise (during the January-March quarter), translating into stable cement volumes," the Swiss firm said announcing its first quarter results.
ACC Ltd and Ambuja Cements have over 58 million tonne per annum cement-making capacity, making Holcim the second largest cement maker in India after Aditya Birla Group's Ultratech.
India is the single largest production base for Holcim, which has 206 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) cement-making capacity now from its production facilities spread over 70 countries.

ACC Ltd sold 6.48 million tonnes (MT) cement in January - March quarter compared to 6.42 MT a year earlier. Ambuja sold 6.06 MT cement in the January-March quarter over 5.96 MT a year ago.
Interestingly, announcing the first quarter results, ACC Ltd had said it did not foresee any significant improvement in the cement market in near-term.

Ambuja, on the other hand, said: "The cement industry is looking for an up-cycle backed by an increase in rural consumption and recovery in infrastructure activity after a muted growth for the last three years."
The cement industry was in fact in doledrums for the last couple of years due to an over-capacity situation in domestic market.

India Ratings recently said slowdown in construction and allied activities would led to shrink the capacity utilisation of the cement companies further between 70 per cent and 75 per cent in FY'14 and FY'15 compared to 76 per cent recorded in FY'13.
On the proposed merger between two India firms, Holcim said that the simplification of group structure in India was close to completion.
"For the planned streamlining of the ownership structure of its Indian operations from a horizontal to a vertical one, Holcim has received approvals from the High Courts in Delhi and Gujarat and is now awaiting final approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board," it said.