President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa inaugurated the Lanwa Sanstha Cement Corporation (Pvt) Ltd. cement manufacturing plant in the Magampura Lanka Industrial Zone, which is the country’s largest cement factory.
The President and Prime Minister also laid the cornerstone for the proposed new steel plant. The new steel facility, which will be erected on 250 acres of land, will cost $400 million to build. The production process is expected to start in late 2024.
The President and Prime Minister dedicated a plaque at the new cement factory’s opening and toured the facilities.
The investment for the cement factory, which commenced construction in March 2020, was US $ 100 million. Covering an area of 63 acres, it is one of the largest cement factories in the South Asian region.
The factory has an annual production capacity of 04 million metric tons and will supply 2.8 million metric tons to the local market under the first phase, said the management.
Conveyor belts are used to transport the raw materials between the port and the factory with the aim of ensuring high efficiency and reducing waste and pollution, and the factory has a fully automatic Stacker Reclaimer Yard and Bridge-Type Ship Unloader.
This will enable the handling of goods using technology instead of labour, in line with international trends. Lanwa Sanstha Cement Factory is also designed to manufacture all types of cement, including ordinary Portland, Portland composite and blended hydraulics.