Displaying items by tag: Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka: W Christopher Fernando has been appointed as an executive director to the board of Tokyo Cement Company (Lanka) with effect from 30 October 2014.

Fernando was appointed as Group General Manager of the company in 1991. He is also a director of Fuji Cement Company (Lanka), Tokyo Super Cement Company (Lanka), Tokyo Cement Colombo Terminal, Tokyo Cement Power (Lanka) and Tokyo Eastern Cement Company. He holds degrees in economics, is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants (FCMA), Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (FCA) and an attorney-at-law.

Sri Lanka: Holcim Lanka has appointed Nirmala GihanWickremeratne as chairman and Premila Perera as director.

Wickremeratne has a long and distinguished career at one of Sri Lanka's most respected conglomerates, the Hayleys Group, where he served as managing director / CEO of Dipped Products Group and later as chairman and chief executive of the Hayleys Group. He is credited with the establishment of Dipped Products plc and its evolution into a world leader in its field. Wickremeratne was the founder chairman of the Sri Lanka Association of Manufacturers and Exporters of Rubber Products (SLAMERP) and has been a committee member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber's representative on the National Labour Advisory Council and president of the Sri Lanka-France Business Council. Following his retirement, he served as an independent non- executive director of a premier private sector bank.

Premila Perera, formerly partner and head of tax at KPMG in Sri Lanka, is a fellow of the institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka. She has served as regional tax director of KPMG Asia Pacific in Singapore, a member of KPMG International's 'Firm of the Future' Task Force and on the faculty of the Tax Business School of KPMG International.

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).