K Ramakrishna, Vice President-Marketing, KCP Cement KCP Cement is a strong trade segment brand in the South. India's first dry process kiln was installed at KCP's state-of-the-art manufacturing plant at Macherla, Andhra Pradesh in 1958 by Humboldt, Germany. K Ramakrishna, Vice President-Marketing, KCP Cement speaks about his company's activities amidst slowing industry growth.In terms of demand-supply and growth rate, how do you view the current scenario in the cement industry? Current slowdown in the economy is dampening the construction activities. Growth rate in the South is less than 7 per cent. Further, the power situation is pushing the industry capacity utilisation to its lowest ever, thus the cost of production is reaching uncontrollable levels for new entrants. What are the various quality control measures undertaken in order to produce good quality cement? For producing the best and consistent quality of KCP cement, we have undertaken the following measures: a) Installation of fully automated robotic lab b) XRF and XRD for on-line testing of raw materials and cement quality. c) Installation of Blend & Pile Expert d) Kiln, Raw Mill, Coal Mill and Cement Mills Operation with Fuzzy Logic System How many production units do you own and where are they located? KCP has two production units, both in Andhra Pradesh. The first unit is situated at Macherla, Guntur District and the second unit is at Ramakrishnapuram, Jaggayyapet, Krishna District. Does the company produce green cement? How does green cement contribute to building a sustainable and eco-friendly infrastructure? We are, at present, manufacturing around 30 per cent of green cement against our total production. Due to its properties of low heat of hydration and longer durability, it helps create sustainable structures. With cement being the third largest consumer of coal, are fluctuations in coal prices affecting the industry? There is always a question mark over the availability of required domestic coal. Hence, we are forced to go for imported coal. But with the ever-strong dollar raising the import costs, it is inadvertently resulting in high cost of production of cement. Your views on FDI entry in India. FDI in cement industry will definitely leads to consolidation in the domestic cement industry. How do you see the cement sector evolving in the next 5 years? Government policies and GDP have a direct impact on the cement industry's growth. The industry will do well once the demand and supply mismatch is corrected and this may happen only after 2014-15.