Article on Brand Positioning of Cement Industry in India and the Dealer’s Preference-A Case Study in the District of Ganjam (Odisha, India)

Cement is no longer just a commodity. Prices have remained unaffected even during monsoons. The Indian cement industry has nearly doubled its production capacity in the last 10 years to 212 million tonnes and newer players are becoming bigger with manufacturing units across the country. The India-versus-China story - the competition for the next economic superpower status - has China leading the race in all sectors except Telecom and IT. What could skew this equation a little, however, is the success story of Indian cement. During the last decade this segment has chalked up an astonishing compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% compared to the world cement industry average of 3.5% and China's 7.2% (Source: Indian Brand Equity Foundation).Even though the Indian cement business is more than 100 years old, it was sluggish and inefficient, languishing under government controls until the early 1980s. Postliberalisation, however, the industry has matured and is flourishing under the open regime. It has grown to a production capacity of 154 million tons per annum (MTPA). This record not only beats that of developed countries like the US and Japan, but also firmly establishes India as these cond largest global player after China. T he Indian government's better-late-than never awakening to the importance of infrastructure and concomitant support for its development, gave cement its rightful place in the economy. As the housing sector boomed and projects such as state and national highways took wing, the Indian cement industry's production capacity leap-fogged. The world's largest cement companies -Lafarge and Holcim - have now entered India. A spate of mergers and acquisitions - designed to exploit the growth in demand - have since occurred. Two large groups - the Ambuja/ACC combine and Grasim contribute almost 35 MTPA each to the country's total annual capacity. By no means has demand for cement peaked. As development picks up greater momentum, cement companies will continue to surge ahead. The one strong pointer to the opportunities is a simple fact: the world's average per capita consumption is 260kilograms. In India it is still trailing at 136 kilos.