The timely evolution of Insee Sanstha Cement

• How Sri Lanka’s No.1 homebuilding cement brand addresses construction and environmental challenges of today

As Sri Lanka’s pace of construction escalates alongside its rapid urbanisation, Insee Cement continues to address the changing needs of their consumers with a constantly evolving products and solutions portfolio. 

Headlining this impressive catalogue is Insee Cement’s flagship brand Sanstha – Sri Lanka’s oldest existing cement brand and the country’s first-ever superior blended cement product. Having sustained consumer loyalty as Sri Lanka’s most loved and preferred building and construction cement product for the past five decades, Sanstha has moved beyond a brand today to become a legacy on its own. 

“As a brand Insee Sanstha has enjoyed unwavering loyalty over the years, a feat that we have never taken lightly,” stated Insee Cement Executive Vice President – Marketing, Sales and Innovation Jan Kunigk. 

“This is why we have taken innovation to the next level at our Innovation to Industry (i2i) Collaboration Space at Peliyagoda; here we continue to elevate Insee Sanstha’s performance, quality and features to make it adapt faster to our dynamic market environment that is also becoming more environmentally aware and responsible.”

Especially engineered for individual house building and concreting, Insee Sanstha is a superior blended cement produced under SLS 1253 composed of clinker as the main constituent, blended with high-grade calcium carbonate and enhanced with either fly ash or slag, improving both the technical performance and the environmental footprint of the concrete composition. 

Insee Sanstha is also Sri Lanka’s first cement product to be awarded with the Green Labelling Certification by the Green Building Council of Sri Lanka (GBCSL), and to receive the Green Mark Gold Award by the Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB). 

“As the industry leader and the only multinational company in the local cement market, it is our responsibility to set a precedent by continuously upgrading our own products to meet these evolving needs and international standards,” Kunigk continued. “In order to do so, Insee continues to introduce regional and global benchmarks to Sri Lanka, playing our part in elevating our brands such as Sanstha alongside local construction industry standards.” 

One in every two homes in the country is built with Insee Sanstha Cement. The brand collaborates with the local consumer and industry stakeholders of building and civil work across Sri Lanka, proactively responding to construction challenges and needs. The Insee teams deployed island-wide across construction sites have built strong relationships with contractors, masons, engineers and on-site labourers, engaging directly to understand their respective needs, and which features to enhance to further future-proof the product. Insee Sanstha is also 100% locally produced, supporting the Sri Lankan government’s manifesto of expediting the economic growth of the country. 

Sri Lankan construction sites, especially individual homebuilders use traditional masonry methods and measuring tools including wheelbarrows, buckets and head pans as opposed to the more rational and accurate methods. Conventional masons also believe adding more water to the mix improves workability, a potentially costly and life-threatening misconception. 

Adding excessive amounts of water to the mix will increase workability but will also significantly reduce the strength and durability of the concrete, while also leading to other performance-related issues such as shrinkage cracking formation. Additionally, aggregate properties also greatly influence the water to cement ratio in a mix and adding more water may result in segregation and shrinkage settlement with inconsistent setting and hardening of the concrete. 

Insee Sanstha is engineered with ultra-fine particles for superior workability and stability, with high degrees of consolidation and compaction. These particles also act as lubricant, reducing water demand and admixture dosage compared to other cements. 

As a result of its high degree of consolidation and particle fineness, Insee Sanstha also produces denser, stronger concrete at all ages leading to minimised corrosion of steel, making structures extremely durable and long lasting. Today’s accelerated construction cycles are also supported by Insee Sanstha’s faster demoulding property, resulting in early returns on investment.  

This continuously improving composition of Insee Sanstha has resulted in exceptional physical and mechanical properties as well as high performance in concrete and masonry work, which has been further augmented by a darker toned finish.

Even though the colour of the cement is not indicative of its strength, Insee Cement’s researchers and engineers also altered its colour composition to a darker shade in order to satiate the conventional aesthetic tastes of the local consumer. 

During its steady evolution, Insee Sanstha has continued to support Insee Cement’s mandate to mitigate the local construction industry’s environmental impact and carbon emissions, steering it towards sustainable construction best practices through the company’s own exemplary and innovative products and solutions, adding long-term value to the structures that bear the Insee Cement name.