Canadian company eyes KKS cement factory

Anjana Samarasinghe

CEMENT: The Sri Lanka Cement Corporation is negotiating with foreign and local investors to re-open the Kankesanthurai cement factory.

Chairman of the Sri Lanka Cement Corporation L. Liyanage said they are discussing with local and international cement traders to re-open the Kankesanthurai factory as a joint venture. The Corporation has received proposals from a Canadian company called Aldo for the factory and negotiations are on with them.

This is a USD 10 million project and factory is situated in Government controlled territory in Jaffna. 'It seems that these foreign investors are confident on investing in Jaffna,' Liyanage said.

The cement factory was closed in 1989 and at the moment no production done in the factory. If the negotiations are successful, the factory could provide around 2000 job opportunities for the people in the area.

This year the total cement requirement recorded was 2.6 million metric tonnes. However, the Kankesanthurai cement plant has the capacity to manufacture 1 million metric tonnes of cement per year.

This is 38.4 per cent of the country's total cement requirement.

At present the Corporation imports 12500 metric tonnes of cement per month and last year it was 3000 metric tonnes. The Corporation imports cement from countries such as China, India, and Indonesia.