India's cement market is growing at a substantial rate. To gain a competitive edge, cement producers are taking their efficiency drive from the plant to the rail network, road and waterways. Logistic solutions are being prioritised to travel large distances and reach markets in record time.

This week, CONCOR, a specialist cement transportation partner and developer of bulk rail tankers, under the Ministry of Railways, saw the first of its rail shipments of 2199t from My Home Cement’s Maha Cement in Mellacheruvu, Andhra Pradesh, to ICD Whitefield, Bengaluru. It broke with convention by reducing the dependency of conventional bagged cement delivery by road. India is transitioning to a developed marketplace with bulk deliveries, reducing its carbon footprint, while moving to more efficient transport routes. CONCOR plans to produce nearly 1000 specialised rail tankers for loading bulk cement.

In this latest initiative, the specialised rail wagons eliminate the need for cement silo storage as the tankers act as a warehouse. The containers can also be taken to ready-mix concrete plants in urban areas. These containers offer the flexibility of multimodal (rail, road and ship) transport. The railways have also encouraged cement producers to consider increased bulk rail deliveries by offering reduced haulage charges, for the next five years, for empty container movements.

Moving cement is costly
Logistics account for approximately a third of the final product value for cement producers and efficiency is similarly being improved with digitalisation. Shree Cement's Chief Logistic Officer, Dr Suresh Kumar Rathi, claims, "Cost reduction is a very big topic."

"Cost optimisation is no longer about negotiating lower freight rates, it's about network optimisation, route planning and data-driven decision-making," said Rajiv Kumar, logistics head at Penna Cement (Adani Group).

Eliminating silo operations has become a staple cost saving. "UltraTech Cement and JSW Cement are deploying centralised control towers, while Dalmia Cement and Nuvoco are integrating Transport Management System (TMS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and telematics for end-to-end visibility," claims Logistics Insider. Cement manufacturers want to integrate planning, execution and tracking systems to control costs and improve service.

The beauty of railways
The railways are seen as a reliable logistics partner. Shree Cement has entered a five-year MoU with RITES Ltd, another public sector undertaking of the Ministry of Railways, to enhance its railway logistics infrastructure. RITES will provide end-to-end service, ranging from conceptualisation to commissioning for the development, renovation and upgrading of rail connectivity. The agreement will include the eco-friendly transport of both raw materials and finished goods. “The partnership with RITES represents a strategic move towards establishing a more sustainable, cost-effective, and efficient transport system,” said Neeraj Akhoury, MD of Shree Cement. "As we expand our manufacturing footprint across India, strengthening our logistics and supply chain infrastructure becomes increasingly critical."

Waterways under used?
Industry leader UltraTech Cement Ltd has taken its business to the waterways. It is leveraging the inland waterways with large consignments of gypsum via National Waterway1, which runs along the Ganga-Bhagirathi-Hooghly river system. The pilot project began in December 2024 and is the first such transport for gypsum at scale on India's waterways, reducing the burden on road deliveries.

Electric vehicles to sustain road deliveries
UtraTech's transport solutions still rely on road deliveries for much of its business. It has sought to increase its fleet of electric trucks, deploying 100 new Rhino 5536 EV trucks from IPLTech Electric at the start of the year. The new fleet operates between Dhar Cement plant, Madhya Pradesh, and Dhule Cement, the grinding unit in Maharashtra. The vehicles will transport 750,000tpm of clinker to the grinding plant, approximately 400km as a roundtrip. The company will save 17,000tpa of CO2. 

Having started operations at Dhule Cement, UltraTech plans to add more locations for electric trucks and targets the commissioning of 500 EV trucks this summer. This objective supports the government's e-FAST (Electric Freight Accelerator for Sustainable Transport) initiative to accelerate zero-emission trucking.