Local universities strengthen ties with INSEE Cement
Ties between new kid on the block, INSEE Cement and the Universities of Peradeniya, Moratuwa and Ruhuna were cemented last week resulting in 18 civil and environmental engineering students, six from each university, being granted scholarships annually.
They are ‘new’ only in name for Sri Lanka’s most-popular cement manufacturer Holcim (Lanka) Ltd changed its name to INSEE Cement last December after being bought over by Thailand’s Siam City Concrete Company Ltd.
The new brand resulted in a fresh agreement being signed last week with three of the leading local universities in a continued bid to boost research and development.
And there is an ever-growing need for new-fangled products, especially fast-drying cement, which according to Janaka Weerakoon, INSEE Cement commercial director, is among the top priorities.
With Colombo’s skyline changing with mushrooming high-rise projects, construction industry experts believe the quicker a building rises, the bigger the profit-margin will be – of course within the stringent safety standards that INSEE prides on.
“We need to have early-strength (in cement) for in construction time is money. When you pour in normal cement, you need a settle-in period of around 20 days. But we are looking at cement which can harden fast, in two or three days, so that we can go on building up,” explained Mr. Weerakoon
“This MOU is proof that we are looking long-term at research and development. The industry needs have changed because we have never seen so much of high-rise in this country. We are also looking at green (environmentally-friendly) products,” he added.
While a major part of the collaboration will focus on research, the agreement also covers a wide scope including the scholarships, donating books to libraries and supporting competitions and technical sessions to students where the industry’s knowledge will be passed on.
“With this kind of partnership we can find out exactly what the industry wants and when we do research it will be focused on those requirements,” outlined Prof. Ananda Jayawardena, Vice Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa.
“From the Moratuwa (University) point of view we would always like to do research which has an application. We have had a long-standing collaboration with Holcim (before) and now we are continuing with INSEE and we hope it will be a productive partnership,” Prof. Jayawardena added.
The demand for cement and its associated products is rising sharply. In 2015-16 the country needed more than six million tons, a large part of it being imported.
INSEE are the market leaders in the manufacture of cement locally meeting between 50 to 60 per cent of the demand. From humble beginnings – producing 30,000 tons – they manufacture in excess of 2.3 million tons today with projects in the pipeline to increase the capacity at its two plants in Galle and Puttlam.
With its parent company having the world’s largest cement production complex in Saraburi, Thailand, it seems the knowledge transfer will greatly benefit local graduates as they dream up ways to strengthen the industry.