Tokyo Cement to set up new unit, Sri Lanka

Tokyo Cement is in talks to set up a new US$50m facility under the name of Tokyo Eastern Cement Company as part of the Sri Lanka-based cement producer’s expansion strategy to meet anticipated rises in demand.

“We are currently in the process of finalising a 33-year lease agreement with the government for the land, to construct the factory,” SR Gnanam, managing director of Tokyo Cement said.

The new factory will be located adjoining the company’s existing 1.8Mta grinding factory in Trincomalee and will have a cement capacity of 1Mta.

Fuelled by major government infrastructure projects and private sector investments, the company expects medium-term growth on the Sri Lanka market to be around 10 per cent per annum. “The trend of lowering interest rates will contribute towards sustaining this demand,” Gnanam noted.

Tokyo Cement is a joint venture between Nippon Coke & Engineering (formerly Mitsui Mining) and the local St Anthony's Industries. As well as the grinding plant at Trincomalee on a private jetty, it operates a 10MW biomass power plant which burns rice husks. The company is also adding a smaller plant at Mahiyangana to encourage local farmers and residents to grow gliricidia trees to use as biofuel.