February saw good dispatches by the cement makers, particularly Grasim Industries and Ambuja Cements. While Grasim’s dispatches rose 10% year on year to 29.19 lakh tones, Ambuja saw a growth of 11.27% at 16.49 lakh tonnes. In comparison, ACC’s dispatches grew by a modest 3.5% to 17.5 lakh tonnes.

All the same, the improving dispatches reflect the various stimulus measures taken by the government.

Going by dealers, demand was robust, driven by government projects and higher spending on account of the upcoming elections. Additionally, higher prices and peak season off-take helped dispatches.

Solel had approached company officials during VGGIS '09

Insurance scheme may not see an uptick in demand this year too

Despite being badly affected by last year’s unseasonal rainfall, coffee growers in the country are still sceptical about the rainfall insurance scheme for coffee (RISC). “The first phase of receiving insurance applications for this year was held between February 23 and 28. It did not receive a great response as growers are a still a little unsure about the scheme,” said Sudarshan AC, secretary of the Coorg Planters Association.

The Coffee Board had late last year revised the coffee production estimates by 5.6% to 2,76,600 tonne for the current crop year and indications are that a further cut in estimates is expected in the coming days.

Paris - French telecommunications giant France Telecom said on Wednesday that its profits for the year 2008 fell by 35.4 per cent over 2007, to 4.07 billion euros (5.1 billion dollars).

The reasons for the downturn was a decline of 527 million euros in operating income, an increase of 337 million euros in expenses due to one-time items and a jump of 1.5 billion euros in corporate taxes, the company said in a press statement.

Taipei - Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, the world's largest electronics components manufacturer, and IBM Inc agreed Wednesday to jointly develop technologies to fight carbon emissions.

Hon Hai and IBM signed the agreement at Hon Hai headquarters in Tucheng near Taipei on delivering and deploying GreenCert, the world's first system that can calculate and certify the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced by a facility.

Though construction activity is yet to pick up, cement prices in the country have gone by as much as Rs 6-10 per 50 kg bag in the last fortnight.

But the hike is not in direct proportion to the increase in demand, which has been marginal. Rumours are that cement manufacturers are creating an artificial supply gap and that's what is driving the prices up. On the condition of anonymity, a Mumbai-based dealer said, "UltraTech has increased its wholesale cement prices to Rs 259 per 50-kg bag. Supply is low in the market and so, cement companies are increasing prices as they wish."