Sri Lanka Holcim ready to bid for Jaffna cement plant
The Sri Lanka unit of Holcim said it would enter the bidding process to build a joint venture cement plant with state-run Sri Lanka Cement Corporation in the northern Jaffna peninsular.
Holcim Sri Lanka chairman Manilal Fernando said in a telephone interview from Dubai that firm’s board of directors had cleared the move and a proposal would be submitted to the government Friday.
Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsular has large deposits of high quality limestone.
Last month, the island’s ministry of industries called for expressions of interest to build a cement plant with 1.6Mt a year capacity with the government holding a 51 percent stake.
The plant was destroyed during a 30-year war with Tamil Tiger separatists that ended in May.
There is also another plant, which is partially intact in the peninsular belonging to Lanka Cement, a listed state-run firm.
Holcim owns Sri Lanka’s only integrated cement making plant in the northwest Puttalam area and also operates a grinding plant in Galle, in the south of the country.
Published under Cement News
