Cement Industry in India is on a roll at the moment. Driven by a booming real estate sector, global demand and increased activity in infrastructure development such as state and national highways, the cement industry has witnessed tremendous growth. The realty sector boomed but could not sustain for long and it collapsed because of the loan defaults. This situation spread like wild fire and put the Indian economy in danger like the US economy. The US financial crises have affected many countries of the world and India is not an exception to it. Because of these financial crises, Indian economy has lost more than 2% of GDP growth. Almost all sectors of the Indian economy have been affected by this crisis. In this paper, an attempt has been made to find out the impacts of global financial crisis on the Indian Cement Industry particularly the ACC limited.

The origins of Indian cement industry can be traced back to 1914 when the first unit was set-up at Porbandar with a capacity of 1,000 tons. Today cement industry comprises of 125 large cement plants and more than 300 mini-cement plants. The Cement Corporation of India, which is a Central Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), has 10 units. There are 10 large cement plants owned by various State Governments. Cement industry in India has also taken tremendous strides in technological upgradation and assimilation of latest technology. Presently, 93% of the total capacity in the industry is based on modern and environment-friendly dry process technology. The induction of advanced technology has helped the industry immensely to conserve energy and fuel and to save materials substantially. Indian cement industry has also acquired technical capability to produce different types of cement like Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Pozzolana Cement (PPC), Portland Blast Furnace Slag Cement (PBFS), Oil Well Cement, Rapid Hardening Portland Cement, Sulphate Resisting Portland Cement, White Cement, etc. Some of the major clusters of cement industry in India are: Satna (Madhya Pradesh), Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Gulbarga (Karnataka), Yerranguntla (Andhra Pradesh), Nalgonda (Andhra Pradesh), Bilaspur (Chattisgarh), and Chandoria (Rajasthan).

Cement industry in India is currently going through a consolidation phase. Some examples of consolidation in the Indian cement industry are: Gujarat Ambuja taking a stake of 14% in ACC, and taking over DLF Cements and Modi Cement; ACC taking over IDCOL; India Cement taking over Raasi Cement and Sri Vishnu Cement; and Grasim's acquisition of the cement business of L&T, Indian Rayon's cement division, and Sri Digvijay Cements. Foreign cement companies are also picking up stakes in large Indian cement companies. Swiss cement major Holcim has picked up 14.8% of the promoters' stake in Gujarat Ambuja Cements (GACL). Holcim's acquisition has led to the emergence of two major groups in the Indian cement industry, the Holcim-ACC-Gujarat Ambuja Cements combine and the Aditya Birla group through Grasim Industries and Ultratech Cement. Lafarge, the French cement major has acquired the cement plants of Raymond and Tisco. Italy-based Italcementi has acquired a stake in the K K Birla promoted Zuari Industries' cement plant in Andhra Pradesh, and German cement company Heidelberg Cement has entered into an equal joint-venture agreement with S P Lohia Group controlled Indo-Rama Cement.

Managerial Economics Journal, Global Recession, Indian Cement Industry, Financial Crises, Indian Economy, Central Public Sector Undertaking, Distribution Control System, Socio-Economic Development, Indian Cement Companies, Ordinary Portland Cement, Skills Development, Economic Growth.