Keralan builders looking to tackle rising prices, India

Keralan builders looking to tackle rising prices, India
11 April 2011


As builders elsewhere team up to explore opportunities of setting up a cement plant to tackle rising costs, Kerala builders are looking at the option of opening up dealerships.

The build-up of ire against repeated hikes in cement price by manufacturers found concrete expression last week when the Builders Association of India (BAI) declared that it would proceed to put up its own cement plants.

An apex body of engineering and construction contractors, the BAI is initially looking at least one of four strategically located and captive plants with a capacity of 5Mta going on-stream in the next three years. Mineral-rich Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh presented themselves as immediate choices for locations, according to BAI.

Last year, the BAI had approached the Competition Commission of India (CCI) seeking to restrain the Cement Manufacturers Association of India (CMA) from hiking prices by ‘artificially creating shortages’ at the market place. Though the State is resource poor and industrially backward, the State backed by wads of expatriate currency has a thriving construction and building sector with its own identity.
Published under Cement News