The Story Of How India Became A World Class Cement

Industry.

The cement industry has turned out to be one of worlds biggest industries
ranking next to steel for so many years now -- supplying material to all modern
constructions. It has emerged as a basic industry that can boost development and
generate employment at a massive scale. The best of cement manufacturing
companies in India have largely contributed to this.

The story of cement

The use of hydraulic lime, which resulted into the discovery of modern cement,
was first made by John Smeaton in the early 18th century. Known as the father of
civil engineering, Smeaton went on to design and construct several canals, bridges,
and harbors of those times.

Several decades passed after John Aspdin took the first patent for common cement
in England. Towards the end of 19th century, many nations took up cement
production. Going by the records, the first cement manufacturing company in
India, the Indian Cement Company Ltd, started in the year 1914 in Gujarats
Porbundar.

The cement produced by the Indian Cement Company Ltd was of only one type --
Artificial Portland Cement. The product was marketed in Karachi, Madras,
Mumbai, and several other regions and brought enormous profits.

For quite some time, India used to import cement from England. But it soon
realised that importing cement was proving costly. While the domestic demand for
cement shot up on the one hand, the supply from imports reduced due to war
situation on the other hand. Luckily for Indian industrialists, their efforts to build
up enough capital and find ample raw material bore results. The labour was cheap,
and the government too gave its full support. Within a short span of time, there
were some of worlds best cement manufacturing companies in India.
A cement unit each was opened in Madhya Pradeshs Katni and Rajasthans
Lakheri during 1915-16. After the First World War, with government support,
India got 6 more cement manufacturing units.

India was producing over 2.5 lakh tones of cement by the year 1924. It still had to
import cement to cater to the domestic demand. In an ensuing fierce rate war,
many indigenous units had to close down. Among these were Indian companies
which suffered locational disadvantage of being away from commercial centres or
ports.

The landmarks in Indian cement history

- The formation of first ever cement manufacturers association in 1925; later,

the Concrete Association of India in 1927,; the Cement Marketing Company
of India in 1930, which led to creation of a quota system depending on
different cement factories installed capacities.

- An important development took place in 1936, when all of Indias cement

companies formed Associated Cement Companies Ltd (ACC). In the years
after this, some of the best cement manufacturing companies in India
were established.

The partition after independence severely affected the cement industry. India
retained 19 out of 24 factories after partition with a capacity of producing 2.1
million tonnes of cement. Still, both India and Pakistan struggled with the demand
and supply gap for a long time.

Expansion

The governments Cement Expansion Scheme in 1948 aimed at encouraging newer

factories to step up production. Bagalkot, Orissa, Jaipur, and Travancore saw
establishment of new factories. By the year 1950, the installed cement capacity at
22 operating units was 3.3 million tonnes. The initial 5-year-plans had a prominent
place for the cement industry. And it helped. The industry grew manifold.
Today, India is worlds second largest cement producer. And the governments
latest (twelfth) five-year plan gives equal importance to increasing the cement
industrys capacity. It plans to raise infrastructure investments up to US$ 1 trillion
for this. With strong government support, in terms of taxation, infrastructure
spending and flexibility in laws, not just the best cement manufacturing
companies in India, but also the smaller ones will be able to contribute in
providing a boost to the countrys economy.