Clinker exports hold promise for cement units

For the Indian cement industry, it’s a clinker-led export boom. Even as cement exports have more or less stagnated due to sluggish demand, cement companies such as ACC and Sanghi Cement are betting heavily on clinker exports to Western Europe, West Asia, Africa and neighbouring countries.

During 2003-04, nine million tonnes of cement and clinker were exported from the country, against 6.92Mt during the previous fiscal. The growth of 30 per cent in overall exports has largely been on account of clinker exports to countries such as the UAE, Nepal, Bangladesh and Qatar. UAE alone imported 870,000t of clinker from the country last fiscal, while Bangladesh and Qatar imported 422,000t and 329,000t respectively. In fact, several countries such as Spain, Bangladesh, Qatar, Oman, Iran and Kuwait import only clinker from the country and do not import any cement.