{"id":155947,"date":"2026-04-28T14:32:35","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=155947"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:32:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T21:32:35","slug":"sri-lanka-should-develop-steel-melting-by-scrapping-steel-in-trinco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/28\/sri-lanka-should-develop-steel-melting-by-scrapping-steel-in-trinco\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka should develop steel melting by scrapping steel in Trinco"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-lankaweb-com wp-block-embed-lankaweb-com\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"3Ewyx8SM9v\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/01\/sri-lanka-should-plan-to-benefit-from-war\/\">Sri Lanka should plan to benefit from War<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Sri Lanka should plan to benefit from War&#8221; &#8212; LankaWeb.com\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/04\/01\/sri-lanka-should-plan-to-benefit-from-war\/embed\/#?secret=3eNbFBEtFO#?secret=3Ewyx8SM9v\" data-secret=\"3Ewyx8SM9v\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The core problem: labour shortage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>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\u2014construction here is still heavily labour-intensive and slow to modernize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>steel + prefabrication<\/strong>steel structures with prefabricated panels\u2014is <strong>globally proven<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>China \u2192 mass prefabrication, rapid high-rise assembly<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>South Korea \u2192 modular construction systems<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>United States \u2192 increasing use of offsite fabrication<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Projects like Altair Tower Colombo show Sri Lanka already has exposure to advanced structural systems&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Where your idea is strong<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Labour reduction<\/strong>: Prefab can cut on-site labour by 30\u201350%<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Speed<\/strong>: Projects completed faster \u2192 lower financing cost<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Quality control<\/strong>: Factory production reduces site errors<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Safety<\/strong>: Less manual risk on site<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This aligns well with a labour-constrained future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Places like Alang (India) or Chittagong (Bangladesh) do shipbreaking\u2014but even they don\u2019t directly convert scrap into certified structural steel without heavy industrial processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Real bottleneck: ecosystem, not raw material<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if you had scrap steel, you still need:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Structural design codes for steel buildings (partially underdeveloped locally)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fabrication plants (precision cutting, welding, galvanizing)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Skilled <strong>fabricators and erectors<\/strong> (different from masons\u2014not zero labour)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Logistics for large prefabricated modules<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So the constraint shifts\u2014not disappears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Cement vs steel \u2013 not a simple replacement<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Companies like Siam City Cement (INSEE) or Tokyo Cement wouldn\u2019t necessarily lose out\u201d entirely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Hybrid systems (steel + concrete composite slabs) are common<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Foundations still require concrete<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Infrastructure (roads, ports) will always use cement<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So this is more <strong>diversification<\/strong>, not replacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What would actually work in Sri Lanka<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A realistic version of your idea would be:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Promote <strong>light-gauge steel framing<\/strong> for housing<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Introduce <strong>modular prefab panels<\/strong> (walls, bathrooms, MEP units)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Incentivize <strong>offsite construction yards<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use imported certified steel initially (not scrap-based)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Gradually build a <strong>local fabrication industry<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Strategic insight<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The real shift is not steel vs cement\u201d\u2014it is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moving from <strong>site-based construction \u2192 industrialized construction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s the transformation countries are&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Regards<br><br>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr Sarath Obeysekera 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\u2014construction here is still heavily labour-intensive and slow to modernize. steel + prefabricationsteel structures [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":155948,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155947\/revisions\/155948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}