How far will Indian cement go without petcoke?

India's cement industry is highly reliant on petcoke, but a recent ban on the use of the fuel around Delhi has raised concerns about a country-wide ban, and is forcing companies to seek costlier alternatives.

The Supreme Court of India banned the use of petcoke, a solid petroleum byproduct, in the National Capital Region (NCR) starting November 1 of 2017, due to a series of complaints and concerns about the state of air quality around Delhi and other major industry-heavy Indian cities.

The NCR, which is comprised of the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and located around the city of Delhi, is home to several cement plants as well as other industries which relied on petcoke until the ban. Companies were given very little time to adjust to the new rules, as the new regulation came out in October 24 of 2017, and by January 20 of 2018, there were imposed restrictions on its import to the NCR. However, the court later allowed the cement industry to use petcoke, so long as it was used in the manufacturing process instead of power production.

Read the full article in ICCM 40