Cement price cartelisation allegations trigger CCI raids
Cement

Cement price cartelisation allegations trigger CCI raids

Competition Commission of India (CCI), India’s antitrust body, conducted raids this week at offices of UltraTech Cement and two subsidiaries of LafargeHolcim. Simultaneous search operations were also conducted at multiple locations in India.

Swiss-based LafargeHolcim confirmed in a statement that officials visited the Mumbai offices of ACC and Ambuja Cement, and stated that the companies were fully cooperating with the authorities.

Media reports also say via sources that searches were conducted at Indian company Shree Cement Ltd. None of the Indian cement companies were willing to comment.

Following the news of the raids, shares of major cement companies were down between 3% and 5% in intra-day trading on Thursday.

So far, there has been no comment from CCI regarding the matter. No details are updated about ongoing public raids or cartel cases. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had announced in the parliament last year that the CCI was examining complaints of cartelisation by cement companies. CCI had imposed a heavy penalty of $1.1 billion on several cement companies in 2012. They were accused of using their plants to create a shortage of cement. An appeal is still pending for that decision.

CCI, in recent years, has also raided offices of other foreign companies such as Carlsberg and Glencore on allegations of price collusion in their industry.

India is the second-largest cement producer in the world. The country accounted for 8% of global installed capacity in 2019. During 2019-2020, the cement sales in India stood at $9 billion.

Competition Commission of India (CCI), India’s antitrust body, conducted raids this week at offices of UltraTech Cement and two subsidiaries of LafargeHolcim. Simultaneous search operations were also conducted at multiple locations in India. Swiss-based LafargeHolcim confirmed in a statement that officials visited the Mumbai offices of ACC and Ambuja Cement, and stated that the companies were fully cooperating with the authorities. Media reports also say via sources that searches were conducted at Indian company Shree Cement Ltd. None of the Indian cement companies were willing to comment. Following the news of the raids, shares of major cement companies were down between 3% and 5% in intra-day trading on Thursday. So far, there has been no comment from CCI regarding the matter. No details are updated about ongoing public raids or cartel cases. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had announced in the parliament last year that the CCI was examining complaints of cartelisation by cement companies. CCI had imposed a heavy penalty of $1.1 billion on several cement companies in 2012. They were accused of using their plants to create a shortage of cement. An appeal is still pending for that decision. CCI, in recent years, has also raided offices of other foreign companies such as Carlsberg and Glencore on allegations of price collusion in their industry. India is the second-largest cement producer in the world. The country accounted for 8% of global installed capacity in 2019. During 2019-2020, the cement sales in India stood at $9 billion.

Related Stories

Gold Stories

Next Story
Infrastructure Urban

Vedanta Metal Bazaar Expands to Global Markets

Vedanta Aluminium has expanded its digital e-commerce platform, Vedanta Metal Bazaar, to international markets, enabling overseas customers to order and purchase aluminium products online.The platform will now be available to buyers across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, providing a digital gateway for export transactions with 24x7 access.In FY26, Vedanta Metal Bazaar processed transactions worth nearly $4.1 billion, or over Rs 380 billion, and fulfilled more than 23,000 orders. The platform is also used regularly by more than 550 MSMEs in India alongside large OEM customers.The export ..

Next Story
Infrastructure Urban

Ramky Infrastructure Q1 FY27 Revenue Rises 24.3%

Ramky Infrastructure Limited reported a 24.3% year-on-year increase in consolidated revenue from operations to Rs 471.2 crore for Q1 FY27, compared with Rs 3.79 billion in the corresponding quarter of FY26.Standalone revenue from operations rose 27.5% YoY to Rs 4.51 billion from Rs 3.54 billion, while total standalone income increased 35% to Rs 5.32 billion.Consolidated profit before tax stood at Rs 540.9 million during the quarter. The company highlighted a sharp sequential improvement compared with a pre-exceptional loss of Rs 190.1 million in Q4 FY26.Two of the three projects awarded during..

Next Story
Technology

LTTS Launches AgenticIQ AI Platform for Engineering

L&T Technology Services (LTTS) has launched AgenticIQ, an end-to-end agentic AI platform designed for engineering and manufacturing organisations.The platform is aimed at helping enterprises move beyond isolated AI pilots by enabling autonomous, multi-agent workflows across engineering, product development, manufacturing, industrial operations and customer experience.AgenticIQ is built on LTTS’ Engineering Intelligence portfolio and converts existing engineering capabilities into specialised, reusable AI agents. Its planning-first architecture is embedded into engineering and production ..

Advertisement

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Get daily newsletters around different themes from Construction world.

STAY CONNECTED

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement