Indian Cement Sector Update

Top 5 players report dispatches decline of 3.2% yoy

• Unseasonal rains, labor shortage due to festive season impact dispatches in November. Top 5 players report aggregate dispatch decline of 3.2%
• Cement prices see some softness across regions - cuts of Rs 2-10/bag; across North, central & south. Dealers expect prices to remain sluggish till mid December owing to poor demand
• Demand growth remains key to sustain prices hikes taken in October. Seasonal logistical bottlenecks (wagons supply to food grains & crop) could provide some support to prices
• Remain NEUTRAL on sector, positive on ACC, Grasim & Shree, negative on Ultratech, India Cement & Madras Cement

Structural Collapse: Need of Design Verification Authority

Major TV channels and newspapers ferociously covered the recent story of a building collapse in Delhi that killed over 60 people (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Building-collapse-in-Delhi-kills-over-60/articleshow/6933971.cms). Authorities kept playing the blame-game (http://www.hindustantimes.com/Building-collapse-MCD-Delhi-Police-begin-blame-game/Article1-627696.aspx).

Such collapses are not rare in a country like India. We always wonder if it was a structural failure, a construction failure or a maintenance failure.

The design team (however, most of these constructions are not even properly design by a professionally competent structural engineer) always find construction and maintenance issues.

I think the government must implement some regulatory framework so that such unfortunate events can be avoided. A system must be in place ensuring that the construction meets the various IS standard of practice. Any government body, like Municipal Corporations, PWD or CPWD must be authorized to approve design and check the quality of construction at various stages. Even they should be made responsible to see if a building is properly maintained.

One of my friends from Pune informed me that the Municipal Corporation there issues licenses to the Structural Engineers only after getting an appropriate 'Grade Certificate' from the ISSE -Indian Society of Structural Engineers. But who will insure if the construction is design by a licensed structural engineer.

Or should we have a separate Design Verification Authority completely independent of Municipal Corporations, PWD, CPWD etc?

Some people argue that such failures are rarely due to faulty structural design; most of the times there are other reasons.

What do you think, please share your opinion.

Building Material Exchange

Building Material Exchange, BuMex (http://bumex.in/) is live and running.

BuMex established itself with the intention is go beyond traditional online B2B marketplace and become a full-service B2B exchange for Indian construction industry.

BuMex plans to capture and capitalize the market inefficiency prevailing in Indian construction industry by providing a common platform to market players to source / sell product and services online.

BuMex provides Suppliers, typically manufactures and distributors, with direct access to Buyers on national level that have an immediate need for building material and construction industry related services.

BuMex services the buying community, engineers or purchasing professionals that have the need for building material or any construction related services. The site serves as an online supplier relationship management tool that helps determine market pricing and saves Buyers time through helping them source smarter by becoming more efficient at creating, delivering and tracking the RFQ process.

To come on board with us as an Industry Expert, Investor or Mentor, please contact me at info@bumex.in

BuMex is also participating at The Next50 Global Innovation Challenge

The Next50 Global Innovation Challenge is a part of the Innovation Initiatives being run on the Golden Jubilee celebrations of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur – India's premier technology and Innovation University.

Career as a Civil Engineer

Considered as one of the oldest engineering disciplines, Civil Engineering involves planning, designing and executing structural works. The profession deals with a wide variety of engineering tasks including designing, supervision and construction activities of public works like roads, bridges, tunnels, buildings, airports, dams, water works, sewage systems, ports etc. and offers a multitude of challenging career opportunities.

A civil engineer is responsible for planning and designing a project, constructing the project to the required scale, and maintenance of the product. A civil engineer requires not only a high standard of engineering knowledge but also supervisory and administrative skills. The planning part of their work involves site investigation, feasibility studies, creating solutions to complications that may occur and the actual designing of structures. They have to work with the guidelines of the local government authority and get plans approved by the relevant authority. They may prepare cost estimates and set construction schedules. Construction work involves dealing with clients, architects, government officials, contactors and the supervision of work according to standards. Their work also involves the maintenance and repair of the project.
The major specializations within civil engineering are structural, water resources, environmental, construction, transportation, geo-technical engineering etc. On most projects, civil engineers work in teams or in coordination with many other engineers. They can find work as a supervisor of a construction site or a managerial position or in design, research as well as teaching in government services or private concerns. They can also work as independent consultants

Institutes: IIT's or Indian institute of Technology in New Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur are the most prestigious Engineering institutions in India. A comprehensive list of engineering institutes offering civil engineering can be found here.

Remuneration: The earnings depend on the industries employing civil engineers such as Central or State government departments or private concerns. But more than this it depends on from which institute you completed your civil engineering. Median Salary by Years Experience for a Civil Engineer is shown in the chart above. To know more about civil engineer’s pay scale, click here.

Construction Recruitment

The market is flooded with recruitment and placement websites. Most of them are generalist in their approach; however, there are some websites which focuses on certain specific skill category. Financial sector was long enjoying such benefit.
I was wondering why there is no specific employment site for construction industry although it contributes a substantially to GDP, particularly in a developing country.
Recently I came across http://www.constructionrecruitments.com/ which focuses on Indian Construction Industry recruitment. I called some of my friends to ask about this website but unfortunately not able to get any review. I will appreciate if some reader can throw some light on the website.

Innovative building equipment cuts down construction time

Building construction of 10.25 lakh sq. ft to erect 14-storeyed 15 skyscrapers, totalling 1,200 flats, on 45 acres of land would normally take minimum five years under conventional construction methods and that too if all the 15 towers are built together. However, the ultra-modern and innovative French, German and Chinese material handling and construction techniques adopted by B.G. Shirke Construction Technology Ltd, Pune, would take hardly one-third of this time. In fact, B.G. Shirke has already built three 14-floor towers with these technologies within a short span of 22 months, as part of the Rs 84 crore Millennium Towers residential complex project of City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) at Sanpada in Navi Mumbai. With age-old conventional methods, this would have taken minimum five years for completion, M.T. Lalvani, Deputy Chief Executive of the project, told Project Monitor. The French construction technique called Tunnel Form (TF), adopted for this project, eliminates building material-handling by one-third since the construction is not only fully mechanised but most of the site activities like foundation, columns, beams, slabs, infill walls, lintels, chhajaas, door-frames and internal/external plastering are clubbed together into only one single synchronised construction action, Lalvani explained. Interestingly, this technique is called Tunnel Form because it works on the principle of tunnel construction. The TF technique is a properly industrialised system and patented by a French innovator company, namely Outinord, by exploiting the theory and concept of tunnel construction to building construction. Besides, the TF technique is so called because a tunnel is formed out of the inside walls and the slabs together for monolithic casting of load-bearing walls and slabs in one continuous concrete pour. After casting of the unit of form work, a part of the tunnel is pulled out by wheels mounted on jacks/hydraulic system. As such TFs are necessarily required to be very rigid and sturdy. The TF work is a high performance tool enabling Striking, Erection and Concreting on the same day as compared to three different actions, compulsorily separate and extended up to many weeks! Whereas in TF the speed is achieved on account of: * Mechanisation in form work. I Handling of large room-size form work by fully electronic tower crane up to any height. * Minimum number of components to be handled. * Placement of form work is very rapid as the kickers forming the base of each wall are cast simultaneously as the slab. * Works of columns, beams, slabs, walls, lintels, chhajaas, door frames and internal/external plastering is done in a single action. * It creates a simple focus for operation, concentration and production resources. And the most consolidating and also aesthetic aspect of TF technique is that the entire construction doesn't have a single joint. Moreover, its plaster is all weather-proof and doesn't chip out the way convention plaster does, more so in the moist weather of Mumbai, Lalvani claimed. Regarding the strength of a building built under TF technique, Lalvani said, "The building won't collapse for a minimum of a century!" According to Lalvani, the electronic tower cranes used in this project are manufactured by B.G. Shirke Construction Technology Co. Pvt. Ltd under collaboration with a French company, namely Potain. The crane is costing from Rs 65 lakh to Rs 1.5 crore each, depending on its size. The crane's unique feature is that it has in-built power-transformer and voltage stabilizer. In addition, to own use, the company is marketing them to other builders in a big way. The concrete mix for the project also eliminates the material-handling process to a large extent, as it is done at a fully computerised batching plant at the site. This Rs 1.5 crore plant is fabricated under collaboration with a German company called Elba. The JV company is named as Shirke-Elba. The capacity of this plant is amazingly large like 40 cubic metres per hour. The Shirke story of minimum material handling doesn't end here! At Millennium Towers project, for instance, they have installed Chinese pumps to push concrete mix from the ground-level to construction spots right up to the 14th floor automatically. Shirke is in the process of collaborating with the Chinese manufacturer of these pumps to make them in India.Source: http://www.projectsmonitor.com/

Architecture graduate: Is the worst over?

Yes, Jeremy Till, Dean of architecture at Westminster University
In times of recession there is often talk of creativity being spurred by adversity, of burgeoning margins, of new architectures arising Phoenix-like, all of which might appear to favour the energy and hope of new graduates.

But this is a rather elitist view of the world, in which hairshirt endeavour is seen as a virtue rather than what it really is — an incredibly tough journey for the few.
It also overlooks the severity of the present condition, not just the economic crisis but that architecture students are graduating with debts of anywhere up to £50,000, whereas in the previous recession student grants were still in place and tuition fees nonexistent.
More than this, the reaction to an abyss created by a culture of reckless risk is of course to shut down risk, as anyone who has tried to get a business loan recently will know. Therefore the opportunities for graduates to exercise that energy and hope are inevitably curtailed just when we need such action more than ever to challenge the orthodoxy and ethical paucity of neo-liberal values.

There is a gallow humour in the studios as students prepare for their end-of-year shows; a pride in showing what they have done, but a barely disguised despair of what might come of their efforts.

That is why the profession needs to move more quickly to come up with ideas to cope with this crisis, and that is why in July, Westminster University will be launching a major project to provide support for unemployed built environment professionals.

No, Peter Murray, Chairman, Wordsearch consultancy
I guess if your aim is to step effortlessly on to the treadmill of life there have been better times. But historically, periods of recession do give people a bit more time to think, develop strategies for dealing with work and allow creativity to blossom unhindered by the constraints of budgets, schedules and demanding clients.

In the recession in the seventies, I remember the growth of groups and individuals who developed the pattern of their future work out of the tough economic environment. There was Ant Farm, Street Farm, Chrysalis (the team that went on to design much of the Pompidou Centre); Ken Yeang cut his teeth on sustainability issues and there was a massive amount of research carried out on solar panels, trombe walls and recycling, which got lost when the economy picked up. Will Alsop hit the headlines as a member of the Multimatch Group, Alvin Boyarsky ran the Architectural Association on a shoestring (students even had to sweep out the building themselves) yet created a successful school with a hugely influential team of alumnae including Koolhaas, Hadid, Tschumi, Coates et al.
In the recession in the nineties Nigel Coates occupied run down offices in Clerkenwell at £4 a sq ft. The opportunity of cheap rents is not to be underestimated in assisting the growth of new businesses.

You can also volunteer — Article 25 is keen to recruit graduates who are willing to work overseas and help developing countries deliver better buildings.
Source: Here