The world?s largest cement and building materials maker Lafarge is bullish on the readymix concrete business (RMC) in India. After acquiring RMC assets from Larsen & Toubro way back in May 2008 for Rs 1,480 crore, Lafarge has grown manifold in the RMC business, both production as well as number of plants to not only maintain its leadership position with a market share of around 20% on the commercial RMC space but also its spread across all major cities in India to ensure speedy, safety and quality delivery of materials.
With the strong revival in the demand for RMC in IT infrastructure, commercial office space, residential and industrial areas, Lafarge has set a target to double its overall production, sales and number of plants to 8 million cubic metres, over Rs 2,500 crore and 160 plants, respectively, said Cristobal Lopez, vice-president (marketing) and Jean Michel Laye, vice-president (QC and product development), Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete India.
Responding to queries, both the official said, ?The RMC market in India is evolving fast and has been witnessing an annual growth rate of 12% to 15%. Of the total 100 million cubic sq metre RMC industry, commercial space holds nearly 5% with 20 million cubic sq metre (including industrial, office space, infrastructure). There are nearly 180 to 200 RMC players in India (including big and small ones) and Lafarge leads the pack with 20% market share.?
?Ever since we took over the L&T?S RMC operations in 2008, we have grown to 80 plants in 35 cities from 65 plants in 29 cities, spread across the length and breadth of India to ensure its presnece in key metros, cities and towns, providing speedy, safety and quality services at a quick point of time. We see India is a fascinating market and quality, service, safety apart from our pan-India presence will help us to grow fast and maintain our leadership position in the years to come,? they pointed out. According to them, “Lafarge expects commercial, infrastructure and residential segment to contribute more. With the presence of global real estate/commercial space developers into India, Lafarge will utilise its strong relationship with these players into the Indian market with more and more OEM orders. Lafarge also involve, builders, architects, promoters and other stakeholders concerned to create awareness and make understand the quality offerings from its stable to reach more customers.”
To a specific question, the officials said, ?We will be reaching out to tier II and tier III towns to enlarge our scope of activities as these cities throw huge opportunities for us to become a major player. It not only helps us to ensure speedy and safety delivery of RMC but also help us to promote our brand in a big way.?
Remi Barbarulo, head of durability department at Lafarge?s R&D centre in France, said, ?Lafarge has been one of a very few to invest in R&D heavily and we will be a unique player in this space. We have been investing euro 30 million annually to design, develop new products for different applications for different segments to cater to the global markets.?