CREDAI: Cement makers can't hold Andhra Pradesh to ransom CREDA

Vijayawada: The Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India, AP Chapter’s dissatisfaction over the attitude of the cement manufacturers on their reported unethical practice of declaring dispatch holiday.

The act has prompted the state government to address the possible crisis on a war footing. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has directed the finance minister to hold a dialogue with senior officers in the Union ministry of trade and commerce and with cement manufacturers, as the holiday will create a hurdle and hamper the large scale construction activity going on in the capital region.
In fact, the state government has also started working on the statistics related to exports, imports and manufacturing statistics of cement.

Though Credai and AP Real Estate Developers Association have strategically slowed down their protest activity, their resentment towards the cement manufacturers was strongly placed before finance minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu during their recent meeting.

Statistics indicate that India has exported 152 million tonnes of cement in 2011, which was just 4.3 per cent of the global cement output.

After the decontrol of cement, the Indian cement industry has gradually developed good export market for cement/clinker due to its competitiveness and tendency to grow for achieving a technologically sound.

Export by the cement industry which was just 0.15 million tonnes of cement during 1989-90, crossed the level of 10 million tonnes during 2004-05.
However, from 2005-06 the declining trend of cement/clinker export started due to global financial crisis, creation of capacities in emerging markets and infrastructural bottlenecks.

To make the Indian cement/clinker competitive in the global market, The Cement Manufacturers Association urged the Union government to see that the royalty paid on limestone be neutralised for export of cement.

The Credai’s AP Chapter president said that they sought the intervention of the state government only to see that indiscriminate hike in the prices is curtailed.