Cement crisis deepens

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

Zimbabwe’s cement crisis  has deepened as producers struggle to  keep up with market demand, Business Times can report.

Not even the government’s decision to let companies or individual with free funds import cement duty-free has made a difference.

One of the main reasons why so few individuals  and businesses have free funds  to import cement is the severe  shortage of foreign currency in the country.

The few that do are charging exorbitant prices for their cement.

Business Times was informed by construction executives who preferred  to remain anonymous that the situation with cement was dire.

“The cement crisis has  aggravated as the  shortages have continued unabated in the formal sector with most projects stalling for months now. In  situations where the commodity is readily available, the prices are exorbitant  ranging  between US$15 and US$18 depending on the strength and are beyond the reach of many. As we speak many projects  have stalled  and are certainly not go to meet set deadlines due to the  devastating cement shortages.  We would have taken advantages of the little rains so far but with no money for imports and acute shortages we can’t do anything at the moment,” an executive said.

Up until September, construction was booming, but from October onward, things dramatically worsened.

Cement shortages, according to Builtlink Engineering managing director Perseverance Manyangadze, have hurt the company’s operations.

“We are faced with a situation whereby we are forced to double our costing due to the ongoing  cement crisis. As an example, we were billing a decent house at US$100 000 but with cement shortages and price escalations we are forced to double our costing as cement was sold  at an average price of  US$10.50 per 50 kilogrammes but now it’s now going for over US$18 per bag. This means we have to increase our prices to meet the escalating costs. This cement crisis has caused some projects to stop as some of the project owners don’t have money outside their original budgets to continue operations and this has affected our viability,” Manyangadze said.

“We hope that the cement producing companies will bulk up stock during the annual shutdown period from December 15, 2023 to January 15, 2024 to improve the situation. In the long term, we anticipate that the cement producers get increased power supply  to ramp up production as with enough  power supply,  local cement is competitive,” he added.

In a survey carried out by this publication, there  are no cement stocks on the formal markets with most cement  at various containers around town and shades where the commodity is pricey.

The minister of information, Jenfan Muswere, voiced concerns about the import window’s low uptake.