Bharathi Cement makes inroads next month

Hemanthi GURUGE

One of the leading cement manufacturers Bharathi Cement will be introducing their product line to Sri Lanka from next month.

Metsteel (Pvt) Ltd Managing Director S Kanakaraja speaking to the Daily News Business yesterday said initially they will be importing cement bags from India and distributing.

"Our target is to market around 10,000 to 15,000 metric tonnes per month initially," he said.

Sri Lanka is facing a construction boom now and the Indian company has seen a big opening in Sri Lanka.

"Our cement products will be very competitive and will be the cheapest in the market," he added. Bharathi (BCCPL) is a subsidiary of Vicat Group. The Vicat Group manufactures cement, ready-mixed concrete, concrete product (Precast) and aggregates.

The Group continues expanding under President Jacques Merceron-Vicat and is present in 11 countries, France, US, Turkey, Senegal, Switzerland, Egypt, Italy, Mali, Kazakhstan, Mauretannia and India. Sri Lanka is their 12th market. The Vicat Group has 6,700 employees and generates sales of Euros 2 billion. He said they have major expansion plans for Sri Lanka and under the second phase of their operations they plan do packaging in Sri Lanka. "We are yet to decide from which Port (Colombo or Hambantota) we would commence this operation," he said.

Bharathi Cement produced an ultra modern plant located at Andhara Pradesh in India. With a capacity of 5 million tonnes this is one of the largest cement plants in Asia. Bharathi Cement has also obtained the SLS mark from SLSI.

The authorized agent in Sri Lanka for Bharathi products is Metsteel, Wattala.

Bharathi Cement Corporation Marketing Director Ravinder Reddy will be in Sri Lanka, next month for the product launch.