Four Indian plants force to close on alleged environmental violation

Four cement plants in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh have been ordered to shut down on alleged violation of air pollution controls norms.

The Chhattisgarh Environment Conservation Board (CECB) told Business Line India that two UltraTech Cement plant, one Ambuja Cement and one Lafarge plant have all be closed for over a week now.  The four units, all situated in Baloda Bazar district, have a total capacity of 10Mta.

CECB member secretary, Mr Narsimha Rao, said there were charges of violation and all the units were served prior notices. Industry sources have refuted charges of violation of norms.

In terms of the likely impact on sales, Karvy Stock Broking analyst Rajesh Kumar Ravi said: “We estimate UltraTech and Ambuja Cement sales to be adversely impacted due to this shut down. UltraTech’s two plants represent around nine per cent of its total cement manufacturing capacity. A month’s shutdown would lower the FY13E sales volumes by one and two per cent, respectively, for UltraTech and Ambuja Cements respectively.”