The Indian cement industry is the second largest market after China and accounts for over 8 percent of the global installed capacity. The country has registered a total cement production capacity of about 455 million tonnes (MT) as of November 2018. The Indian cement industry has become a significant part of its economy in 1982 and has granted employment to more than a million people, directly or indirectly. No wonder, it has attracted the huge investors, both from Indian as well as the foreign experts. India has a lot of potential for developing the infrastructure and construction sector and the cement sector is expected to largely benefit from it.
Government’s strong commitment for affordable housing, construction of cement concrete roads, creation of 100 smart cities, world-class infrastructure development, with emphasis on development of freight corridors and port connectivity has given a definite fillip to the creation of more demand for cement in the country. The results of new government initiatives have already started reflecting in the growth of the cement industry to 8.5 per cent in the first eight months of the current fiscal, as per industry reports. If this momentum gains further, the cement demand will again pick up a double digit growth. To meet this level of cement demand, the likely requirement of major inputs in future will be - 156 million tonne coal, including for captive power; 998 million tonne limestone; 13,300 MW of power and 35 million tonne gypsum. The cement plants will further modernise their existing state-of-the-art plants with kiln capacity of 12,000-14,000 or even more.
Taking into account the positive developments that could be brought in the cement manufacturing industry; we decided to chronicle the participation and contributions of the leading players in IndustryOutlook’s recent edition. We intend to shed light on the prospects of the cement industry.
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