Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Co

Godrej, under its construction division - Godrej & Boyce has made successful journey in Ready-Mix Concrete unit, its Dy. General Manager, Mr. M.N.  Pooniwala, shares exclusively with Built Expressions about its achievement.

Colour Concrete

BE: Demand for RMC in India is catching up especially in urban areas of India. In this scenario, how has your company geared up to meet the requirement?

MNP: As the demand for RMC is increasing nationwide at a significant pace we are strengthening our pan-India presence by establishing captive plants for our group projects. These plants will not only cater to the project but will also be used commercially. M.N.Pooniwala, General Manager

BE: Within RMC, which are the grades/categories that you offer as solutions? Which are the different verticals/segments of the construction industry do you cater to?

MNP: Based on our customers’ needs we offer all grades of concrete ranging from M-10 for small houses to high grade for strength intensive high rise towers. Our R&D team has designed concrete for different kinds of applications like high strength, high volume fly ash, fibre reinforced, temperature controlled, coloured and rheodynamic concrete to name a few. We are continuously involved in expanding our portfolio to unlock the true potential of concrete technology and applicability. Recently we have designed a special mix for storage safes which helps achieve higher resistance and drill ability. Currently majority of our operations is in the commercial and residential buildings space.

BE: How has been the RMC market growth in India over the last few years? And what are your projections for the next five years?

MNP: Urbanization has induced robust growth not just in RMC but in all construction related sectors as well over the last 5 years, but the impact of the economic slowdown – both global and domestic- in the last couple of years is now being felt. Overall economic slowdown, sluggishness in construction activity, liquidity crunch and policy hurdles have resulted in lower RMC demand growth (9-10%) in 2012-13. In contrast, during 2008-09 to 2012-13, the all India RMC market expanded at a healthy 24 per cent CAGR.

The economic slowdown has affected all the sectors. However the housing sector seems to be on a relatively firm footing across the country. We are expecting developments in real estate, especially residential and infrastructure segments to drive RMC demand over the next 5 years. We project RMC demand to grow by around 18 per cent CAGR to reach a total market size of Rs 586 billion from 2012-13 to 2017-18. Housing construction is expected to account for about 76 per cent of the demand while infrastructure and industrial segments are likely to constitute about 17 per cent and 7 per cent, respectively. We plan to play a significant role in harnessing this growth in the near future by being a key construction partner for the housing industry.

BE: Please share more about your company. How do you ensure the quality of RMC? What are your future plans for the next two years?

MNP: We are an RMCMA and IMS certified company. Our manufacturing plants are equipped with state-of-the-art quality control systems and laboratory. All concrete products are thoroughly checked under stringent controlled conditions by our quality experts before being dispatched to the construction sites. Along with a steady economic growth the country’s natural resources are fast depleting. As natural resources are non renewable the future lies in manufacturing sustainable green products. Our focus in the forthcoming years will be towards greener products and operations to meet the growing demand while keeping in mind the limited natural resources available to us.

BE: Looking at the macro scale of concrete demand in India, the construction industry is still conservative to receive RMC as a solution over conventional concrete. What are your suggestions to counter this challenge?

MNP: RMC is manufactured through an automated and computerised process by exercising control over every step, the resultant of which is a high quality product. In case of site mix concrete, there is lack of control on mixing of concrete ingredients, which may result in a poor quality product. Penetration of RMC as compared to site mix in India currently stands at 9% as compared to 65-70% in developed economies like USA, Europe and even developing economies like China. Site mix has been banned in more than 200 cities across China. We expect the Government to play a vital role in increasing RMC penetration through tax reduction on manufactured concrete as it is not only a higher quality product but is also eco-friendly.

BE: What is the role of Flyash in RMC?

Fly ash is a by product of thermal power plants which is normally not used for any major activity. Blending of classified Flyash helps improve the durability of concrete. Flyash is finer than cement and hence it helps make the concrete denser by occupying the voids in them. Although it has one disadvantage of lower strength development in the early days and an advantage of equal or higher strengths at 28 days and 90 days respectively compared to control concrete. Incorporating silica fume in small quantities in HVFA concrete is likely to compensate the deficiency occurring in early days. Besides Flyash replaces cement in the concrete, manufacturing process of which consumes huge amount of energy and releases CO2 to the environment. Replacement of cement by flyash in concrete also leads to reduced heat of hydration. We see flyash having a great future for its use in RMC.