While banks and non-bank lenders were the major borrowers in the dollar bond and loan market in the last three months, other companies have also expressed interest and are rushing to global rating agencies to rate their issuances. The reason: A fall in hedging costs.
Heidelberg has more than 13 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) cement making capacity in India, of which 6.3 MTPA is with the listed entity HeidelbergCement India, and 7.1 MTPA is with the closely held Zuari Cement. This compares with nearly 140 MTPA capacity of market leader UltraTech Cement and nearly 70 MTPA of the second-largest player, the Adani Group.
JSW Cement, the building-materials business of steelmaker JSW Group, is in initial talks with Germanys Heidelberg Materials to acquire the latters 13.4 million-tonne-a-year cement businesses in India, industry sources aware of the talks told ET.
While the overall impact on the Chinese export market is expected to be limited, India s dependence on Chinese steel imports has been growing, with China becoming the second-largest steel exporter to India. The domestic steel industry has raised concerns about the impact of imports on prices and demand.