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Gujarat Ambuja: Cost Leader in Indian Cement Industry Growth

- A Concrete Story..

TEAM MEMBERS

Sonal Arya Sarjak Kikani Shailja Kapoor Shalu Weling Shivika kanchan Shashank Rai Sanket Bhatia Shailesh gupta Shivani maheshwari Shakti Dash Shazia Tasneem

CONTENTS

Introduction Background Note Indian Cement Industry Manufacturing Process Total Cost Management

Logistics
Order Processing Systems Inventory Management

Packaging
Transportation Warehousing Future Outlook and Conclusion

AMBUJA CEMENT

Started production in 1986 Cement factories Sea terminals


mn tons

1986 Capacity 0.7

2002 13.0

INTRODUCTION

In 2004 GACL was the third largest producer of cement in India

Widely considered to be the lowest cost producer

GACLs quest for cost leadership had been driven by


productivity improvement and cost cutting measures.

Believed in doing things in innovative and unconventional ways.

Pioneered in various cost cutting measures like: Modern plants, large kilns, high degree of automation, low-manpower cost, power tariff, fuel cost.

Use of substitutes instead of coal to cut energy costs. Ship transportation to cut down freight costs. Low cost funds helped to cut the cost capital.

Picked up best practices during oversees visits.

BACKGROUND

GACL was established as APCL in 1981 by Narotam S Sekhsaria. Originally a cotton trader. Suresh Neotia was appointed the Chairman & Sekhsaria took over as MD of APCL. In 1983, company floated a public issue & changed its name to GACL & production started at 0.7 mtpa in Ambuja Nagar Gujarat. In 1993, GACL commissioned its 2nd plant named Gujambuja Cements. In 1995, it set up a 1.5 mtpa plant in HP called ACHU & floated a wholly owned subsidiary in Mauritius CAIL. In 1996, GACL floated Ceylon Ambuja Cements Ltd., through which it acquired a small company, Midigama Cement, in Sri Lanka.

CONTD.

3rd plant at Ambuja Nagar named Guj Line II (1 mtpa). GACL also established grinding and packing units at Ropar & Panvel. In 1997, it acquired sick Modi Cements, plant of 1.4 mtpa at Raipur for Rs. 1.66 billion. It was renamed ACEL. In 1998, GACL acquired Nadikudi and Proddatur limestone mines in AP to strengthen its presence in Southern India. In December 1999, GACL paid 3.5 billion to acquire a 51% stake in Delhi based DLF Cement. After this merger, GACL became the 4th largest cement manufacturer in India after ACC, L&T and Grasim.

CONTD.

In December 1999, GACL acquired 7.2% stake in ACC for Rs 4.55 billion. ACC has 14 manufacturing units in India with a total capacity of 11 mtpa. In December 2001, GACL began trial production in Chandrapur, Maharashtra with 2 mtpa, taking its total capacity to 12.5 mtpa. In FY 2003, the company recorded a sales figure of Rs 2173 crores and a PAT of Rs 293 crores

THE INDIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY


India - world's second largest cement producer after China. With the capacity of 151.2 Million Tones (MT), it is big in size and hence accommodates a number of cement companies in the market . Foreign MNCs entered the country-Lafarge and Italicementi Gujrat was the largest cement producing state. The demand was closely linked to performance of Indian Economy. Indian Government was a major consumer of cement

Top 20 companies accounted for more than 70% of the total cement production in India.
The total installed capacity is distributed over 129 plants, owned by 54 major companies across the nation.

MAJOR PLAYERS IN INDIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY(2003)

ACC 13.3% Gujrat Ambuja 11.7% Grasim Ind 10.2% L & T 10.1% India Cement 5.1% Others 24.4%

OLIGOPOLY

Market Structure characterized by few sellers and interdependent price/output decisions Significant barriers to entry Product could be homogenous (similar) or differentiated Potential for economic profits in the long run Incentive for illegal price setting Competition can be vigorous among the few firms

Stable price conditions under Kink Demand Curve

In oligopoly firms operate under imperfect competition. Demand is relatively inelastic because all other firms leading to similar price cut leading to price war. With the fierce competitiveness created by sticky upward demand curve firms use non price competition in order to accrue greater revenue and market share.

Manufacturing
Plant locations and their capacities(June 2003) Location Ambujanagar(amreli,GU J) Bhatinda(PUNJAB) Chandrapur(MAH) Daburji(PUNJAB) Suli(HP) Capacity (000 tonnes) 4150 520 1730 1400 1200 Production quantity 4876.45 335.42 1734.67 1918.96 974.8

Basic raw materials used for manufacturing of cement are : Limestone Clay Silica Gypsum

Cement manufacturing process involves the following steps: Quarrying and crushing Grinding and blending of raw materials Clinker production Finish grinding Types of processes for production of cement Wet process Semi dry process Dry process
Cement Capacity in India(break up by process) Process Dry Semi-Dry Wet Total: Capacity 3,21,695 5,930 13,220 3,40,845 %age to total 94 2 4 100

Dry process reduced the fuel consumption from 330kg to 250kg of coal. Output of dry process was 2.5 times than wet process. Vertical shaft technology mini cement units-wet process Rotary kiln technology used in large plants dry process GACLs engineers used husk and crushed sugarcane to fire the kiln. This bought energy bill down to Rs.20 per ton. GACL replaced V belt driver by flat belt drivers. GACLs clinker was heated at right temperature thereby reducing the power costs from 120 to 90 units per ton.

MANUFACTURING

MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CEMENT PER TONNE OF CEMENT

1.2 1.5 tons of limestone 0.25tons of coal 120 kwh of power 0.05 tons of gypsum

POPULAR VARIETIES OF CEMENT ARE:

Ordinary Portland cement Portland Pozzoland cement Portland blast furnace slag cement White cement

Cost

1.

GACL always attempted to reduce their cost of production in any which way possible. There were two main costs associate with the production costs of GACL: Dec.. Dec.. Jul-sep Power cost 2003 2002 2003
Units consumed Cost (Rs/Ton) 85 180 86 187 90 183

2.

Fuel cost
K.Cal/Kg of Clinker Cost (Rs/Ton)

Dec ..

Dec..

July-sep

2003
718 229

2002
729 224

2003
727 230

Techniques used by GACL to reduce its cost of production:

V belt drives which consumed more energy were replaced by flat belt drives.
improved version of mechanical conveyor was used to eliminate breakdown and spillages. Adjusted retention time,maximised temperature and the rate of cooling to reduce power cost from 120 units per ton to 90 units per ton. Reduced mining expenses by implementing ripping technology. Introduced an Australian device called Surface miner to recover more material from the given area and save energy. Computerized process control system for easy access and regulating the production process. Zero Error Electronic Rotary Machines to increase capacity utilization.

Improvement in efficiency and lower shutdown rates to increase capacity

THIS CLEARLY SAYS THAT BY REDUCING THE DIFFERENT COSTS ON THE RAW MATERIAL, POWER COST, REPAIRING COST, SHUTDOWN COST, TRANSPORTATION COST GUJARAT AMBUJA HAS BROUGHT
DOWN ITS AVERAGE COSTS WHICH HELPS IN INCREASING THE PROFIT.

CLASSIFICATION OF COSTS

Fixed Costs Variable Costs

Research & Development Depreciation Rent Advertising & Marketing Expenses Inventory Management Order Processing Systems

Electricity Raw Materials Wages Packaging Transportation Fuel Consumables

ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Cost advantages that a business obtains due to expansion. Situation in which output can be doubled for less than a doubling of cost. Types of Economies of Scale: a) External Economies b) Internal Economies

INCREASE IN THE SIZE OF INDUSTRY


End year of plan Capacity (Mt) Production (Mt) 14.66 19.42 30.13 45.42 Capacity Utilization (%) 74 86 72 74

4th plan (1969-74) 19.76 5th plan (1974-79) 22.58 6th plan (1980-85) 42.00 7th plan (1985-90) 61.37

8th plan (1992-97) 105.26


9th plan(19972002) 10th plan(200207) 145.37 177.83

76.22
106.90 161.66

72
73 91

INTERNAL ECONOMIES OF SCALE

GACL is executing Rs. 2200 Crore capacity expansion and aimed at hiking its capacity to 20 million tonnes over next three years, from 13.7 million tonnes. By rationalizing the use of vertical shaft technology in Mini units of cements and rotary klin technology in large plants.

The Company used Zero error Electronic Rotary Machines, which helped them to minimize the wastages.

LOGISTICS
GACL was one of the 1st cement producer company to introduce Integrated logistics system(ILS). Order Processing System involved the flow of information about the orders from generation to fulfillment. involved transmission of customer order, paper processing, retrieval from the ware-house, dispatch to the transpotrers, transmission of information to production planning dept.

..

Inventory Management Involved knowing both, when to order and how much to order Management had to control the cost of carrying larger inventory Had well developed system for inbound raw materials.

Packaging cement was packed in 25-50 kgs packet bags using jute bags. Was 1st to use paper bags for packaging having advantage of low pilferage, better preservation, appearance with low cost. Each bag contained the brand name, ISI logo, with identification number, price of the bag and net weight of the bag.

TRANSPORTATION
Cement is highly freight intensive in nature. manufacturing of each tonne involved a transportation of 1.6 tonne of limestone,0.25 tonnes of coal, 0.05 tonnes of gypsum. Road transportation beyond 200 kms was not economical,55% transported through railways. Unavailability of wagons for transportation on western and southeastern railways. In 2003,70% of the movement worldwide was by sea compared to only 1% in india.

GACL was the first co. to use water transportation for domestic as well as export consignments.

As a result the cost came down drastically.


The cost of transporting were as follow: RAIL 580/ton ROAD 670/ton SEA 190/ton

CONTD..
Bought ports and freight handling terminals at Muldwarka, surat and vashi.

In 2003 muldwarka was equipped to export clinker, cement, import coal and furnace oil.
Built a bulk terminal at kochi in kerala. Setting up Breakwater and jetty facilities in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala. Acquired five ships for transporting cement in bulk. 350 self financed trucks and a railway siding its in its factory premises provided flexibility in the mode of transportation

WAREHOUSING AND DISTRIBUTION


The Company used to types of warehouses Dumps and Transhipment point storage. Online connectivity for facilitate efficient delivery of goods. Bulk cement terminals located at 1. Surat 2. Vashi 3. Galle

GAME THEORY

Game theory is mainly concerned with predicting the outcome of games of strategy in which the participants have incomplete information about the others' intentions. A game occurs when there are two or more interacting decision-takers (players) and each decision or combination of decisions involves a particular outcome . The fate (or the payoff) of a player in a game depends not only on the actions of that player but also on the other players! The Prisoners Dilemma Game theory analysis has direct relevance to our study of the behaviour of businesses in oligopolistic markets

IMPLICATIONS OF GAME THEORY


2003
AMBUJ A

2004 235 293 248 450

2005 235 468 242 544

2006 235 1503 242 1231

2007 232 1971 242 1438

2008 262 1402 257 1212

2009 275 1218 273 1606

2010 270 1263 270 1120

PRIC E NP PRIC E NP

235 222 250 350

ACC

A C Constant C Decrease

Constant

AMBUJA Decrease

1503 ,
293 ,

1231
450

1971 ,
1263

1438
, 1120

By game theory, we can conclude that constant price is desirable. So, now price of both the cement bag is 270 per piece in 2011

FUTURE OUTLOOK OF GACL

GACL has been pursuing a combination of strategies like Strategic alliances Capacity expansion New plants Aggressive takeovers. The company had set up a two million ton Greenfield cement unit in Maharashtra at an investment of Rs.500 crores. It had expanded capacity at the existing Gujarat Site from three million to four million at an incremental cost just of Rs.100 crores.

CONTD

It had also set up a one million ton grinding units, one at Bhatinda and another one at West Bengal. Also to enhance its presence in the south , the company had planned to set up a Rs 600 crores, two million ton Greenfield project in A.P GACL has also started offering ready mix cement. As 2004 got under way, GACL looked well placed in the Indian Cement Industry.

..
Best quality cement Good packaging Higher customer satisfaction Strong distribution network Eco friendly operations such as Use of agro waste and bio gas as alternative fuel Use of surface miners- blast free mining. Restoration of mines green spots and water reservoir Global standards of environmental measures.

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