Lanwa Sanstha Cement’s entry to market set to address twin challenges: availability and price stability

By Sanath Nanayakkare

President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa inaugurated the state-of-the-art cement manufacturing facility of Lanwa Sanstha Cement Corporation (Pvt) Ltd., in Mirijjawila, Hambantota yesterday.

The opening ceremony was also participated by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Minister of Irrigation and State Minister of Internal Security, Home Affairs and Disaster Management Chamal Rajapaksa, Minister of Trade Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Power and Energy Pavithra Wanniarachchi and State Minister of Investment Promotions D.V. Chanaka.

A BOI venture, the Lanwa Sanstha facility spreads across 63 acres in Hambantota’s Mirijjawila Export Processing Zone.

Lanwa Sanstha Cement Factory Manager Prasad de Silva told The Island that the facility features a fully automated stacker reclaimer yard and 2 bridge type ship unloaders for efficient, waste-free and sustainable handling of cargo.

“From the loading of raw materials at the Port of Hambantota to the unloading of it at the factory to grinding and mixing to dispatching the final product to the market is fully automated. We will produce the full range of cement products including Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC), Portland Composite Cement (PPC) and Blended Hydraulic Cement (BHC) to cater to the rising local demand from home builders, projects including the Port City and even expressways. We are hopeful that this endeavour would be a solution to the construction sector which is currently suffering due to raw material shortages.”

” The factory will have two production lines and we launched the first production line today which was an investment of more than USD one million. Phase 1 has the capacity to produce 8000 Metric Tons of cement per day. Once both lines are operational, we can produce a minimum of 160,000 50 kg bags per day. The second production line will be operational in a few months,” he said.

“At the moment, our local input and value addition is about 12% and it would be increased to 30- 40% once we can use our steel factory by-products as part of the raw materials.”

According to sources of the company, with the entry of Lanwa Sanstha cement to the market, the price of a 50KG bag of cement should stabilise at Rs. 1, 500.

Lanwa Sanstha Cement Corporation (Pvt) Limited is a sister company of Sri Lanka’s foremost manufacturer of steel, Ceylon Steel Corporation Limited.

According to the factory manager, the plant currently requires 20 MW of power per day for its operations and once both production lines are in the works, the energy requirement would go up to 35 MW.

Minister Chamal Rajapaksa said that the project would provide about 180 job opportunities because it is fully automated.

However, according to factory sources, the factory would create a few hundreds of indirect jobs.