Thatta Cement's Sri Lanka port project on hold

Pakistan-based Thatta Cement has temporarily suspended its proposed grinding and bagging plant in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota Port as it awaits the Land Lease Agreement (LLA) to be signed by relevant authorities.

In a filing to the Karachi Stock Exchange, Thatta Cement said that the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) has not executed a LLA despite the “basic engineering being completed.”

Muhammad Taha Hamdani, CFO and company secretary of Thatta Cement, expressed its dissatisfaction that SLPA had signed agreement with a car transshipment venture in close proximity to the proposed cement project “without anticipating the expected operational conflict which now appears to cause hindrance in setting up the proposed cement project within the layout originally planned by SLPA.” It is feared that dust from the grinding plant would settle on new Indian-manufactured cars being transhipped

The company official stated that further progress on the project would recommence “as soon as the LLA is signed with SLPA.”