According to S K Dalmia, secretary of Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA), “Gujarat broke all previous records in terms of cement arrivals during December last year.” The latest data compiled by CMA and industry sources show that the cement arrivals in the state have surpassed the previous all-time high of 16.87 lakh tonnes posted in March 2011.
Explaining the reasons behind the record cement demand, Alok Sanghi, director of Sanghi Industries, said, “In the past too, the month of December has witnessed high demand for cement in Gujarat. But December 2011 broke all previous records. A surge in demand from infrastructure and government projects has led to the record cement arrivals from within and outside the state.”
Sanghi Industries Limited has emerged as a major cement player in western India over the last few years. The company’s cement plant at Abdasa taluka in Kutch district of Gujarat has an annual production capacity of 3 million tonnes. Currently, the company is targeting to increase its presence in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Gujarat witnessed 30% jump in demand for cement in December 2011 as against the corresponding period in 2010. Cement arrivals in the state stood at 130.14 lakh tonnes during April-December 2011, up by 18% over 110.23 lakh tonnes recorded in the same period in the previous year.
Price cuts
Industry sources reveal that cement prices, which were at its peak level in November last year, witnessed a downward movement in December. The industry has termed the slip in prices of the building material as a normal phenomenon and has attributed the same to the strategy of offering discounts adopted by big companies to push sales.
The pan-India average price of the raw material declined to Rs 270 per 50 kg bag during December last year. In Gujarat, a 50 kg cement bag amounted to around Rs 255 in the same period.
Analysts predict that cement prices will go up again by January-end this year.
Jeeta Bandopadhyay |
Driven by strong demand from the infrastructure sector, cement arrivals in Gujarat reached a record high level of 18.55 lakh tonnes in December 2011. 
