IJM Concrete buoyant on RMC growth in India

IJM is one of Malaysia's largest and most diversified construction groups with a world-wide presence, specializing in the areas of construction, property development, manufacturing, quarrying, plantation and international ventures. IJM Concrete Products Private Ltd. is an IJM group company which specializes in delivering quality concrete, ready-mixed, consistently. Jayesh Krishnan Deputy General Manager, IJM ,Concrete Products Pvt, Ltd.

In an exclusive interview with Built Expressions, Mr. Jayesh Krishnan, Deputy General Manager, IJM Concrete Products Pvt. Ltd., says, the growth of RMC is driven by the demand from metro cities due to the increase in construction projects.

BE: RMC is slowly catching up in India. In this scenario how has your company geared up to meet the requirement?

JK: Today India has a very high acceptability of RMC.The industry is developing at a rapid rate. It always gives us immense pleasure to play a vital role in our country’s growth. Built on the concrete philosophy-perfection as the by- product of an attitude to excel, IJMCPPL has state- of- the-art infrastructure to take care of our customer needs to their satisfaction. Peerless quality, consistency and reliability are the 3 strong points of IJMCPPL.Be it the steady performance of transit vehicle, service or quality our team take extra effort to strive towards perfection. We firmly believe in continuous learning and development. Various programmes are organized throughout the year to upgrade the core competencies of our people. We are ready to take up any challenge through relentless focus on customer satisfaction, optimum operational efficiencies and through the committed and highly skilled work force.

BE: Which are grades/ categories that you offer as solutions? Which are the segment of infrastructure industry do you cater to?

JK: We have developed our own design mix for various grades of concrete which varies from M-5 to M-70 At the same time customer specified mix is also supplied based on the specification given by the structural consultant. The grade of concrete to be used depends on the type of the structure and its based on the decision taken by the structural consultant. We modify the mixes from time to time .We also developed mix design for special products like Self Compacting Concrete, Smart and Dynamic Concrete, Light Weight Concrete, Ice Concrete etc.  We cater to all the infrastructure segments which includes concrete roads, bridges, flyover, metro rail, culverts etc

BE: How has been RMC market growth in India over past few years? What is your projection for next five years?

JK: RMC has grown modestly during the last decade. It’s developing and expanding at a rapid rate in India and the market is growing at a fast pace. Encouragement from government side for using RMC in all infrastructure jobs will definitely help the industry to grow. The growth of RMC is driven by the demand from metro cities due to the increase in construction projects which include Metro rail, fly over and high rise buildings. Considering the advantage of RMC like high quality, eco-friendlly etc. there is lot of scope for the development and growth of RMC in India. As the focus of development is shifting to tier- 2 and tier-3 cities demand for RMC will arise from these places also which will be a boost for the industry.

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

JK: IJMCPPL which has its roots in Malaysia started Ready Mix Concrete operations in India in 2004 at Hyderabad and later at Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. The parent company IJM Corporation,Berhad is renowned as one of the largest infrastructure companies in the world having many prestigious projects to its credit. We strongly believe that employees are our important assets and continually provide platforms for them to excel.

As quality is our utmost concerns we strive for quality in every delivery sroke.We have state-of-art batching plants with good control on accurate weighing, batching, moisture correction, inventory control etc.The twin shaft mixer provides better compaction. We have well equipped technical laboratory with good control on the quality of raw material .Testing is done in-house as well as at third party laboratory. Our technicians are well trained on technical assistance, on-site testing of concrete and also on various test on concrete.

At present we have two RMC plants in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai. As the consistency in aggregate supply is a biggest challenge we realize that having own quarry is a better way to support our growth. We have already started our quarry operations in Hyderabad and have plans to start in other areas of our operations.

BE: The infrastructure industry is still conservative to receive RMC as a solution over conventional concrete. What are your suggestions to counter this challenge?

JK: RMC is eco-friendly and reduce pollution. The ensured quality, reliability and speed of supply are the points to be highlighted. Considering all these, Government bodies and consultants should include RMC as mandatory in their specifications and tenders for infrastructures projects.

BE: What is the roll of fly ash in RMC?

JK: Usage of fly ash not only promotes the green concept but also helps in increasing the strength and durability of concrete. Its better in terms of later age strength and long term durability. Though there is an initial slow rate of strength development it results in higher later-age strength. The extensive research and successful results have proved that the concrete manufactured using flyash gives more strength and durability than the concrete manufactured with only OPC. Its properties include improvement in workability and pumping, reduction in bleeding, improve later age strength gain and long term durability of structure.