Sri Lanka’s Tokyo Cement Co (Lanka) has taken several immediate measures to address a cement shortage in the market, according to Dr Harsha Cabral PC, company chairman.

Tokyo Cement is operating its plant in Trincomalee at the maximum installed capacity of around 170,000tpm and will continue to supply cement island wide at its highest output levels. In addition, the company has been importing 30,000t of bulk cement per month through the Tokyo Cement Colombo terminal.

On a request made by the government, it has also made special arrangements to import an additional 12,000t of cement per month as an immediate contingency measure to alleviate the shortage.

Dr Cabral noted that the shortage has been partly caused by the lack of availability of bulk cargo carriers to ship raw materials and cement.