From left: Ananda Jayawardena of the University of Moratuwa and Prof. S.G.J.N Senanayake of the University of Ruhuna.  Janaka Weerakoon, Commercial Director of Siam City Cement (Lanka) Ltd Charith Wijendra, Director of Procurement & Logistics and Sanka Seneviratne, Head of Industrial Sales at Siam City Cement (Lanka) Ltd.

By Zahara Zuhair
Cement manufacturer Insee Cement, formerly known as Holcim (Lanka) Ltd recently entered into partnerships with three Sri Lankan universities - Peradeniya, Moratuwa and Ruhuna for research and development, where they also announced that they will be investing around US $ 15-20 million for this year.
“We have doubled our capacity in Galle two years ago, and we are looking at increasing it again now. The projects in pipeline are to increase the capacity in Galle and Puttalam. We are also looking at corporate efficiency from our plants; we are starting the projects now. Specially looking at greener cement, which is to start somewhere in mid June,” Siam City Cement (Lanka) Ltd, Commercial Director Janaka Weerakoon said.
The partnerships expect to boost the local industry with innovative, research, and development advancements. Through this, they expect to introduce application- based cement products to the market. As part of the agreement, scholarships will be granted to six civil and environmental engineering students per year from each university. “We are highly aware of the responsibility we have as a leading cement manufacturer in Sri Lanka to guide the local industry in this direction. That is why through this partnership we proactively collaborate with an important stakeholder sector, students and innovators, committing to ensure they have a solid foundation to realise their concepts and paradigm shifting ideas upon, to transform and future-proof our industry,” Weerakoon said.
The Thailand-based Insee Cement, initiated in 1969, last September acquired Sri Lanka’s Holcim (Lanka) Limited, and re-launched the cement product range; Holcim Ready Flow as Insee Rapid Flow, Holcim Ready Flow Plus to Insee Rapid Flow Plus, Holcim Extra as Insee Extra, Holcim Sanstha as Insee Sanstha and Lafarge Marine as Insee Mahaweli Marine Cement.
“Insee expanded its footprint in South Asian region acquiring some of the cement manufacturing facilities, becoming a strong regional player. We are proud to say that Insee cement has the world’s largest cement manufacturing complex located in Saraburi, Thailand,” he said.
He said that they manufacture not only cement, but most of the construction related products as well as cement-based application solutions as well.
“We are in Sri Lanka for long run. We offer our customers a range of products rather than mere cement powder, in the future we will come up with more innovative products which demands for market today,” he said.
Though the country annually needs 6-6.5 million of tonnes of cement, however, they said that they are unable to fully meet the local demand due to reasons such as the costs of the materials, but with the expansion they expect to reach up to 2.5 million tonnes of cement.
“We have come up with new solutions and services, we always look at customers need as a priority,  and come up with sustainable  solutions. Out of the six products in our portfolio, four products are mentioned as -CO2. If you look at challenge globally, the emission of CO2 is the biggest challenge.
Looking sustainability as a key aspect of our development, we have come up with this solution which will reduce CO2 emissions compared to traditional cement,” Siam City Cement (Lanka) Limited Head Industrial Sales Sanka Seneviratne said.
He said the reason to tie up with three universities was to come up with new solutions to cater to the demanding industry.
Insee Cement’s Palavi and Ruhunu Analytical Laboratories are accredited for cement mechanical testing based on ISO/ IEC 17025:2005 standards from national accreditation authority, the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board for Conformity Assessment (SLAB).
Siam City Cement (Lanka) Ltd, is a member of the Siam City Cement Company which manufactures the Insee Cement brand.