For the first time a biomass fired steam boiler manufacturing plant will be set up in Hambantota with an investment of over Rs. 400 million.
This will be a joint venture between Maxtherm Lanka that specialises in supply and installation of biomass fired steam boilers in Sri Lanka and Maxtherm India.
The Indian counterpart is a leader in biomass generated steam involved in selling, supplying and installing steam boilers, thermic fluid heaters, hot water generators, air pollution control equipment and heat recovery units.
“We see a great demand for these products not only in Sri Lanka but in neighbouring countries as well and have decided to set up this JV as a Board of Investment approved project,” Maxtherm Lanka, Technical Director Gaya Siriwardhana said.
He said that they are now in the process of identifying land and obtaining BOI approvals.
They are looking at re-exporting products to Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and other countries. “Why we decided to set up in Hambantota was due to land availability and easy access to shipping facilities from Hambantota,” he said.
Asked why they have not included India for re-export he said that this is because there is tremendous competition there and they would not be able to match the cost of exports.
Maxtherm Lanka supplies their product range to corporates like Bandix, CIC, Arpico, MAS Holdings, CIC Holdings, DSI, Ocean Lanka, Richard Pieris, Hidaramani Group, Asia Pacific Brewery Lanka.
The company also contributed to save a total of Rs. 464 million in foreign currency within the country last year by replacing over 5.4 million liters of fuel oil and 0.23m liters of diesel by biomass.
It helped save 217,000 units of electrical energy and reduced 14,700 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emission during the same year as well. (SS)
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