A week ago, Emami Cement Ltd agreed the takeover by Nuvoco Vistas Corp (Nirma group) for its cement operations in India. The US$770.56m acquisition means that the Nirma group will add to its assets three grinding plants serving Orissa, Bihar and West Bengal, plus an integrated plant in Chhattisgarh, along with mining leases on 300Mt of limestone reserves with an expected lifespan of 60 years. Nirma beat rival bids from UltraTech, LafargeHolcim, and Star Cement for the Emami Cement assets.
Speaking on the acquisition, Hiren Patel, chairman of Nuvoco Vistas, said: "This acquisition is a momentous and transformational step in Nuvoco's journey to becoming a major building materials company in India delivering superior performance. Emami Cement will enable us to take our cement business to the next level and continue to serve our customers with innovative and high-quality products that they trust."
The acquisition raises Nuvoco Vistas' cement capacity by 8.3Mta to 23.5Mta with a portfolio that stretches along east, north and west Indian states. Nuvoco Vistas had previously acquired three cement plants and two grinding stations from Lafarge India in 2019 with a cement capacity of 11Mta. The seven cement plants that Nuvoco Vistas currently operates are in Chittorgarh, Bhiwani, Mejia, Arasmeta, Sonadih, Nimbol and Jojobera. The company will now have three plants in Chattisgarh, two plants in both Rajasthan and West Bengal, and single cement plants in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Haryana. Nuvoco Vistas has built up a strong slag cement business in eastern India and also produces OPC and PPC.
Jojobera expansion project
Moreover, Nuvoco Vistas has a current expansion project underway in Jojobera, Jharkhand, where it also owns 60 ready-mix plants. The current cement capacity of the Jojobera grinding plant is 3.4Mta, but the plan is to increase this by a further 1.5Mta.The project is scheduled to be commissioned in FY21. Clinker is supplied to the Jojobera plant from its sister plant at Sonadih Cement and Arasmeta Cement, and it arrives at Jojobera by rail. Slag is supplied from Tata Steel by rail and road, while fly ash is conveyed. Meanwhile, gypsum arrives at the plant by rail. Grinding is carried out at Jojobera by a ball mill, roller presses and a vertical roller mill.
Plans for a greenfield plant
Nuvoco Vistas is also investigation the option to build further greenfield capacity. An application for environmental clearance on a greenfield cement plant at Ravur village, Chittapur Taluk, Kalaburagi district, Karnataka, was due to be submitted in September 2019, when the current environmental clearance for the proposed plant expired. The project has been delayed since an earlier attempt to build a greenfield plant by Lafarge India in 2009. Nuvoco Vistas intends to build an integrated plant with 2Mta of clinker production and 3Mta of cement grinding capacity on the 150ha site. The factory will be supplied with a 43MW coal-based thermal power plant and 7MW WHR plant. Limestone will be quarried for the Chittapur limestone mine, which has an estimated reserve of 275Mt of limestone. The start-up is scheduled for 24 months from construction start.
Targets for 2020
Nuvoco Vistas has set some ambitious targets in the current year. It has aims to generate 25MW of WHR-based electrical power by the end of FY2020 and to reduce water consumption by five per cent in all of its cement plants. Captive power plants and WHR units are being built at the Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Rajasthan plants. These will reduce the company's dependence on coal. The company will also start clinker debottlenecking at its integrated plants to increase clinker capacity by 10 per cent.