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IndiaMART, India’s largest B2B marketplace, has significantly shaped how businesses operate across various sectors, including the cement industry. With over 28 years of experience, the platform has evolved into a crucial business solution, connecting buyers and sellers and facilitating growth in the digital age. In this exclusive interaction, Dinesh Gulati, Chief Operating Officer of IndiaMART, speaks with Kaushal Dighavkar about the platform’s role in driving digital transformation in the cement sector, how it leverages key government initiatives to meet growing demand, and the challenges and opportunities shaping the future of this essential industry.
Q. How has IndiaMART leveraged its position as India’s largest B2B marketplace to shape and influence the cement industry in recent years?
Over 28 years, IndiaMART has evolved from a simple listing platform into a comprehensive business solution for small and large enterprises across different industries. Today, the building and construction industry receives a large volume of buying requirements, with 8% of total paid suppliers and lakhs of free sellers dealing in the cement and construction business.
Today, eight out of ten customers do an online search of the product before committing to an offline purchase, reflecting the growing power of digital. As the customers look for digital modes, so do the businesses, thereby accelerating the movement from offline to online and driving more traffic on the marketplace such as ours. In addition to this, IndiaMART provides wider access to the market, more options for buyers and competitive prices are the key drivers for growing enquiries on the platform. For cement buyers, IndiaMART provides a wide range of products to choose from such as OPC, PPC, POP, Gypsum Plaster, White cement, Readymix Concrete, Ready mix plaster, PSC, Concrete cement and Epoxy Grout – among others.
Our teams invest substantial time in understanding the buyers’ behaviour and the kind of specifications they look at while buying cement, such as grade, feature, packaging size, origin, packaging type, shelf life, brand, and usage – among others. These insights are further used to enhance the overall buying experience, educate the sellers on how to improve their online catalog and add all the specifications to increase visibility and make the buying experience better for users.
Q. What key government initiatives are currently driving demand in the cement sector, and how is IndiaMART capitalising on these opportunities?
In the PM Awas Yojana initiative, the Indian government announced construction of 2 crore more houses within the next five years. From a transportation standpoint, 51 new airports will be built with continued expansion of existing ones. Expansion of national highway corridors and metro lines in 27 cities are ongoing with 21 more cities listed for proposed metro lines. Government’s PM Gati Shakti (energy, mineral, cement; port connectivity; high traffic density) programme is working to build three economic railway corridor programmes. Today, approximately 40% to 45% of projects under the NIP are currently under different implementation phases. In the coming years, 55-60% of infrastructure projects will get started in the coming years, safeguarding the demand for cement for a foreseeable period. The launch of the PLI scheme has also enhanced domestic manufacturing capabilities and promoted exports. Since its inception in 2021, it has attracted over ₹1.03 lakh crore in investments and set up 1,300 units so far, with more than half of it already operational. Additionally, India’s growing urbanisation and continuous policy efforts to improve rural income will increase the need for more affordable brick-and-mortar buildings, thereby charting the journey towards growth for the sector over the next couple of years.
Q. Uttar Pradesh led with 16% of cement enquiries on IndiaMART. What factors contribute to this regional dominance, and which other states are emerging as significant markets?
The state of Uttar Pradesh is among the top ten cement producing states of the country, naturally leading to an increased number of buyer-seller engagements on the platform. The state is also a manufacturing hub for industries including electronics (hosts 40% of the country’s mobile manufacturing and 55% of mobile component manufacturing), automotive (Tata Motors, Honda, and Yamaha), green manufacturing (1,000 acres parked in Agra), creating an increase in consumption of cement in the state itself. We have close to 50,000+ sellers in the state registered either free or on a paid basis with us and the success rate for any enquiry/engagement lies above 50%. This reflects that the sellers are actively engaging in meaningful conversations with the buyers, fulfilling their orders and close deals with them.
Apart from this, we have seen enquiries coming in from states including Maharashtra (9%), Bihar (8%), Tamil Nadu (7%), Rajasthan (7%), Karnataka (7%), West Bengal (6%), Madhya Pradesh (5%), Telangana (5%) and Andhra Pradesh (4%).
Q. Can you discuss how IndiaMART facilitates connections between buyers and sellers in the cement industry, and what features make the platform particularly effective in this sector?
IndiaMART’s tech-enabled matchmaking capabilities allow buyers to find the most relevant suppliers as per their requirements in a few clicks. The platform provides sellers with an integrated CRM platform – Lead Management System (LMS) that creates a virtual environment by mimicking human interactions, resulting in more meaningful engagements and improved sales outcomes. LMS offers advanced AI solutions that understands the context of conversations and suggests appropriate replies to initiate and sustain dialogue. Today, the platform can even identify the product category of a business enquiry and provide tailored suggestions. For instance, a cement supplier receiving an enquiry will see suggestions such as, “How many bags are needed?” or “What grade type is required?” “What kind of packaging is preferred?” and so on. These suggestions are served within 100 ms and the system also supports Hinglish and other indic languages, making it more versatile for the user base. Currently, more than 60% of the messages on the platform are sent via the Suggested Replies module.
The sellers are also equipped with product catalogue management features such as automated image editing, background removal, and cropping, which makes it more visually appealing for users. Our recent product IM Insta allows sellers to connect with buyers via WhatsApp and help them close deals faster and easier.
Q. What challenges does IndiaMART foresee in the Indian cement industry, and what opportunities do you believe will be key to driving future growth?
Cement is one of the top eight core industries in India and continues to play a pivotal role in building the nation’s infrastructure and supporting its evolving housing sector. The industry has both direct and indirect impacts on the economy, with a multiplier effect of 4.16 on economic output and 1.53 on GDP. Growing urbanisation in India (two crore more houses under PM Awas Yojana, potential launch of middle-class housing scheme, conducive policy environment (PLI, NIP, PM Gati Shakti) and increased pace of industrial building activities (development of 51 new airports, expansion of national highway corridors, metro lines in 27 cities, three economic railway corridor programmes in the pipeline) remain strong catalysts for the growth of the sector. The industry indirectly supports the growth of a range of ancillary industries, such as mining, transportation, logistics, and construction equipment manufacturing.
As the industry grows, so do the challenges around it. Rising cost of raw materials, fuels, inadequate transportation infrastructure in remote areas of the country and increasing greenhouse gas emissions continue to be some of the top challenges for the industry. Raw material like limestone and clinker prices have increased by an average of 10-15% and 5-8% respectively, owing to reasons such as rising cost of mining, petroleum, coal – among others. The industry is also a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, with approximately 8% of global emissions attributable to cement production. Introduction of PAT scheme (Perform-Achieve-Trade), transitioning to water-efficient dry process technology, introduction of electric cement and adoption of highly efficient Waste Heat Recovery Systems and Process Automation are a couple of possible solutions that cement manufacturers are deploying to move towards the path of greener cement.
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