Displaying items by tag: Industry and Commerce Ministry

Sri Lanka: The Industry and Commerce Ministry has queried the sale of Holcim Lanka, LafargeHolcim’s business on the island. Industry and Commerce Ministry Secretary TMKB Tennakoon contacted Holcim Lanka in March 2016 to point out that the government has not benefitted from deals with the cement producer to allow it to build a quarry and that it can control attempts to sell some of its assets, according to the Daily News newspaper.

Tennakoon has raised the issue that the Sri Lankan government is not making profit out of a lease agreement, started in 1993, which gave Holcim Lanka mineral rights to a quarry in Aruwakkalu, Puttalam. In addition the cement producer was granted a 12-year tax holiday on funds borrowed from within Sri Lanka, the ministry claims. The ministry has informed Holcim Lanka that it is in the process of evaluating the terms and conditions of the agreement ‘in order to gain more benefits to the industry and the country’ and warns Holcim Lanka that in the terms of Section 4(b) of the agreement, Holcim Lanka cannot transfer or sub-let the premises without the consent of the government-owned Cement Corporation.

LafargeHolcim announced that it was leaving the cement business in Sri Lanka in early June 2016. The Industry and Commerce Ministry was expressed its interest in buying the local company.

Sri Lanka: The Industry and Commerce Ministry has expressed its interest in buying the local operations of LafargeHolcim. Government sources have said that discussions are now on-going within the administration. The multinational cement producer announced in early June 2016 that it was selling its subsidiary Holcim Lanka. The company was originally state-owned before it was privatised.

"The government is willing to negotiate to buy it at a reasonable price. This is the only integrated cement plant in Sri Lanka. The limestone quarry in Puttalam belongs to the Cement Corporation and it had been leased out to Holcim," said a spokesman of the ministry quoted by the Daily News newspaper. He added that no final decision on the matter has been taken yet. The government also hopes that, if it successfully purchased the company, it could reduce the price of cement in the country.

Local press reports that seven bidders have made offers for Holcim Lanka. These include companies from UAE, Indonesia, Thailand, China and Sri Lanka. Holcim Lanka’s assets include two packing plants in Galle and Trincomalee, a cement plant in Puttalam and a cement grinding plant in Galle.

Sri Lanka: South Korean conglomerate AFKO Group GMEX has expressed interest in reopening the Kankesanthurai cement plant located in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, the country’s Industry and Commerce Ministry has said, according to the Daily Mirror.

“AFKO specialises in cement projects. We are keen to partner in the Kankesanthurai Cement Project and are ready to enter with US$450m as a start. We shall also bring in all the necessary machinery and technology and can start from scratch. We only need Sri Lanka’s land and labour,” said AFKO Group GMEX chairman Keun Young Lee at a meeting with Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen in Colombo. Lee also expressed interest in cement production elsewhere in Sri Lanka.

AFKO intends to start a feasibility study shortly. Ssangyong C&T is the favoured engineering company to start construction at the site. AFKO Group, which merged with Korea’s multinational Hyundai Group in 2008, runs its own construction and cement projects in Africa and elsewhere.

The Kankesanthurai cement plant started operations in 1950 under the Department of Industries and was converted to a public corporation in 1956, being named as Kankesan Cement Works. It closed in 1991 due the civil war. At that time it had a production capacity of 115,000t/yr. In 2011 – 2012 Sri Lanka Cement Corporation and Lanka Cement Limited were planning to resume bagging at the plant. Previously, UAE-based cement company Ras Al Khaimah had been linked to a US$100m investment plan in the plant.