{"id":156547,"date":"2026-06-02T15:15:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T22:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=156547"},"modified":"2026-06-02T15:15:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T22:15:04","slug":"why-sri-lanka-must-shift-towards-a-steel-based-construction-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/06\/02\/why-sri-lanka-must-shift-towards-a-steel-based-construction-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sri Lanka Must Shift Towards a Steel-Based Construction Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>One of the most important strategic decisions Sri Lanka can make is to gradually shift from labour-intensive conventional construction towards a steel-based construction industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Traditional building methods depend heavily on large numbers of masons, carpenters, bar benders, and other tradesmen. With the growing shortage of skilled labour, these methods are becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to sustain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Steel construction offers a practical solution. Steel structures can be fabricated in factories under controlled conditions and transported to project sites for rapid assembly. This approach reduces construction time, improves quality, minimizes material wastage, and significantly lowers the demand for on-site labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many developed nations and rapidly industrializing countries have embraced steel-framed buildings, modular housing, prefabricated warehouses, industrial plants, bridges, and even highway structures. The result has been faster project completion, improved safety standards, and greater productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka possesses several advantages that can support this transition. Existing fabrication expertise within shipbuilding, marine engineering, and heavy engineering sectors can be expanded to serve the construction industry. Investments in fabrication yards, steel processing facilities, and modern vocational training centres would create a new generation of skilled workers while reducing dependence on imported labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The country should also examine the possibility of establishing a modern ship recycling and steel recovery industry. Large quantities of recyclable steel are available from decommissioned vessels operating in the region. Properly managed facilities could provide raw material for local fabrication industries while creating employment and reducing import dependence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A national policy encouraging steel construction for factories, warehouses, commercial buildings, bridges, public housing, and selected highway infrastructure could transform the sector within a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The future construction industry of Sri Lanka cannot be built solely on concrete, bricks, and labour-intensive methods. It must increasingly be built on steel, technology, prefabrication, and innovation.<\/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 One of the most important strategic decisions Sri Lanka can make is to gradually shift from labour-intensive conventional construction towards a steel-based construction industry. Traditional building methods depend heavily on large numbers of masons, carpenters, bar benders, and other tradesmen. With the growing shortage of skilled labour, these methods are becoming increasingly [&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-156547","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\/156547","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=156547"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156548,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156547\/revisions\/156548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}