INSEE Cement announces price increase

Wednesday, 7 March 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In view of the increasing cost of raw material and other production expenditure, INSEE Cement announced that the company had to increase its Maximum Retail Price (MRP) by Rs. 30 per bag.

The retail price of a bag of cement will be Rs. 960 with immediate effect. The price of a ton of cement will be increased by Rs. 600 for project customers.

These price increases have been approved by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) with effect from 23 February 2018 and will be adopted across INSEE Cement’s product portfolio. Local cement manufacturers and importers of cement had lodged applications for price increases due to the increasing costs which the industry had absorbed over the past five years. INSEE Cement Executive Vice President/Commercial Director Jan Kunigk said: “Crude oil prices had doubled over the last two years to $ 60 per barrel and the coal prices had increased by 30% in 2017 alone. Both these are essential inputs for manufacturing cement locally and the import of cement. In addition to the increase of these costs, the country also increased wages by 10% per annum over the last few years due to rising inflation and the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar by a minimum of -3% every year, all of which has a compounded impact on the company. Therefore, to remain competitive amidst these tough conditions it was necessary to make this adjustment to partially compensate for the cost increase.” “The price revision will enable INSEE Cement to maintain our delivery excellence and technical support to our stakeholders nationwide. As the only fully integrated manufacturer of cement in Sri Lanka, we are committed to provide a continuous supply of cement to individual house builders and to all major infrastructure development projects that are in progress and in the pipeline.

“Our products have the best quality of materials meeting both national and international standards and we continue to invest in research and development to provide you with the best solutions for all your construction needs.”