Cement industry
Topic: Manufacturing Industries of India: Location and Distribution · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 6 "Manufacturing Industries"
Meaning
The cement industry makes the binding material used in buildings, roads and dams. Its raw materials are limestone, silica and gypsum, and they are bulky and heavy. It also needs coal, power and rail transport. Moving bulky limestone is costly, so plants are set up near limestone deposits. This is called raw-material orientation. India's first cement plant came up in Chennai in 1904. India is the world's second-largest cement producer (verify current). Blended cement uses fly ash and slag, which are waste materials from power plants and steel plants.
Example
Plants cluster on limestone belts such as Satna-Katni and Rewa (Madhya Pradesh), Chandrapur (Maharashtra), Bilaspur-Raipur (Chhattisgarh), Chittorgarh (Rajasthan) and the Kurnool-Nalgonda belt. Plants on the Gujarat coast also sell cement to Gulf markets.