Displaying items by tag: Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan cement demand fell in the first half of 2013. Yet this doesn't seem to be stopping the cement industry's slow recovery following the civil war that ended in 2009.

As reported by Sri Lankan media around the launch of Holcim Lanka's 2012 Sustainability Report, the local cement industry has seen volumes fall by 7% but this is expected to improve in the second half. Tokyo Cement, a grinding plant operator, confirmed a similar drop in the first quarter of 2013.

Despite the talk of downturn so far in 2013, Tokyo Cement has announced plans for a 1Mt/yr cement plant costing US$50m complete with its own captive biomass power plant. In addition, plans have emerged of a joint venture involving Pakistan's D.G. Khan Cement to build a grinding plant at Hambantota in the south of the island. Costing US$15m, the plant is intended to process exports to South Africa and Kenya.

The explicit intention to produce clinker in Pakistan and then grind it in Sri Lanka before export to a third destination makes an interesting notion. The Pakistan cement producer may benefit from being able to export cement from Sri Lanka with the added security of knowing that the grinding plant is located in a growing market itself. A helpful strategy given Pakistan's cement production overcapacity.

The Hambantota project is also noteworthy because another Pakistan-based company, Thatta Cement, announced in April 2013 that it had signed an agreement with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority to a build a grinding and bagging plant at Hambantota. Also in 2013 the Nepali entrepreneur Binod Chaudhary submitted a US$75m plan for a cement plant in the north of the island.

Of course all of this appears miniscule in comparison to the level of investment Semen Indonesia has chalked up to spend between now and 2016: up to a whopping US$2bn.

Elsewhere in the news this week the price of extending a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deadline has revealed itself to be US$1.5m. Lafarge North America has succeeded in pushing back pollution controls at its Ravena plant by over a year in exchange for interim limits and an investment in air pollution projects in the local community. It's not a fine but the announcement follows other pollution-related payments at cement plants run by Holcim and Ash Grove. Let's hope that any new plants in Sri Lanka avoid these kind of payments.

Sri Lanka: Philippe Richart, formally responsible for the Ready Mix Concrete business in Holcim Vietnam, has been appointed CEO of Holcim Lanka.

The change of CEO, which was announced in February 2013, was part of a generational change in the company's leadership. Philippe joined Holcim Group Support in 2004 as a Commercial Project Manager for the Aggregates and Constructions Materials function, working on aggregates market development and performance improvement in various regions of the Group.

In 2007 he was appointed RMX director for Holcim Vietnam and successfully brought the division into the leading position in South Vietnam.

Before joining Holcim, Philippe held various roles in construction project management and business development for Lafarge Cement and Metso Minerals in Taiwan, USA, China and France. He holds a Master's Degree in Civil Engineering from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Industrielles (Lille, France) and an MBA from George Washington University (DC, USA).