Susan Gordon, Staff Reporter
Basil Phillips of Phil's Hardware. - Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
The increase in the price of cement has come on top of the chronic shortage of the product to further undermine the building industry, says head of Incorporated Masterbuilders Association, Michael Archer.
Carib Cement announced a 15 per cent price increase on Monday. Cement is now being sold at $399 per bag plus the General Consumption Tax (GCT) , while the cheaper local Carib Cement Plus is sold at $370 plus GCT. And in spite of the importation of 200,000 tonnes of cement from Cuba in June which was expected by the Government to stabilise the local market, heavy users and distributors of cement are still complaining of shortage in addition to the higher price.
Basil Phillips, managing director of Phil's Hardware Limited, one of the leading distributors of cement in central Jamaica, said the main problem was one of the inadequate supply. Despite the recent cement imports, he said, "There is not sufficient quantity."
His regular business of selling 2,000 to 3,000 bags per day has been reduced to an uncertain 500 bags of cement from the Caribbean Cement Company. The price increase is, thus, less important than the resumption of regular supplies in these circumstances
With regards to the imports, Mr. Phillips said, "You only hear about these things."
Mr. Errol Salkey, chairman of the Hardware Merchants Association said Carib Cement had previously assured the industry of no further price increase for the rest of the year, and labelled the price increase as "insensitive."
The increase represented the second increase for the year after the one imposed in February and was announced a few months after the severe pandemonium in the construction sector caused by Carib Cement having to recall 500 tonnes of faulty cement released in the market from as late as last October.
Public relations manager for Carib Cement Company Limited, Lystra Sharp said "cement only constitutes 10 per cent of the cost of a house." Other products such as steel and lumber have increased with little noise from the sector, she stated.
And the shortage was no fault of Carib Cement as the company has no control over the demand. She said the company was producing cement at its maximum capacity of 3,000 tonnes per day and opted to import cement to help contain the crisis.
Mr. Archer said the shortage had already affected productivity and contractors would now have to finance the increase in price.
