Dr Sarath Obeysekera

Sri Lanka should plan to benefit from War

The core problem: labour shortage

Middle East pull (especially if reconstruction or instability increases demand) can drain skilled workers like masons, bar benders, and carpenters from Sri Lanka. The Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka has flagged this before—construction here is still heavily labour-intensive and slow to modernize.

steel + prefabricationsteel structures with prefabricated panels—is globally proven:

• China → mass prefabrication, rapid high-rise assembly
• South Korea → modular construction systems
• United States → increasing use of offsite fabrication

Projects like Altair Tower Colombo show Sri Lanka already has exposure to advanced structural systems 

Where your idea is strong

• Labour reduction: Prefab can cut on-site labour by 30–50%
• Speed: Projects completed faster → lower financing cost
• Quality control: Factory production reduces site errors
• Safety: Less manual risk on site

This aligns well with a labour-constrained future.

Places like Alang (India) or Chittagong (Bangladesh) do shipbreaking—but even they don’t directly convert scrap into certified structural steel without heavy industrial processing.

Real bottleneck: ecosystem, not raw material

Even if you had scrap steel, you still need:

• Structural design codes for steel buildings (partially underdeveloped locally)
• Fabrication plants (precision cutting, welding, galvanizing)
• Skilled fabricators and erectors (different from masons—not zero labour)
• Logistics for large prefabricated modules

So the constraint shifts—not disappears.

Cement vs steel – not a simple replacement

Companies like Siam City Cement (INSEE) or Tokyo Cement wouldn’t necessarily lose out” entirely:

• Hybrid systems (steel + concrete composite slabs) are common
• Foundations still require concrete
• Infrastructure (roads, ports) will always use cement

So this is more diversification, not replacement.

What would actually work in Sri Lanka

A realistic version of your idea would be:

• Promote light-gauge steel framing for housing
• Introduce modular prefab panels (walls, bathrooms, MEP units)
• Incentivize offsite construction yards
• Use imported certified steel initially (not scrap-based)
• Gradually build a local fabrication industry

Strategic insight

The real shift is not steel vs cement”—it is:

Moving from site-based construction → industrialized construction

That’s the transformation countries are 

Regards

Dr Sarath Obeysekera