The country now has a two-month stockpile of cement following last year's cement crisis, the Ministry of Industry, Technology, Energy and Commerce reported yesterday.

Overall supply increased by 24.8 per cent last year, said the ministry.

A quality control crisis at Caribbean Cement Company Limited had seen local production fall 10 per cent to 760,000 tonnes in 2006. About 306,766 tonnes had to be imported to fill the gap in supply compared to the figure of 9,438 tonnes in 2005.

Domestic production this year is expected to be 900,000 metric tonnes.

Government and stakeholders agreed on a demand of 1.3 million metric tonnes for the year ahead, based on strong projections for the construction industry. However, Carib Cement said that it expected demand to be 1.1 million metric tonnes.