Local construction industry calls for stable cement prices

The local construction industry has called on the domestic cement manufacturers to maintain stable cement prices to prevent the economic displacement of thousands of construction industry workers and their families.

The Philippine Constructors Association, Inc. (PCA), through Manolito Madrasto, its executive director, pushed for stable and predictable prices at reasonable levels from local cement manufacturers.

He said the Philippine construction industry is seriously affected by the fluctuation of cement prices in the local market.

In 1999, he said cement prices kept changing on a weekly basis despite the weak demand for cement at that time. Local construction firms were unable to do anything about the price increases since the local cement manufacturers generally followed each other in increasing their selling prices.

It got to a point where small construction companies in the southern Philippines even picketed the plant of a nearby cement manufacturer to protest the successive price increases, he said. Circumstances subsequently forced these builders to band together and start importing cement themselves.

To prevent a repeat of the tumultuous market situation of 1999, the local construction industry called on the government to level the playing field by allowing the construction industry the choice to look for alternative sources to stabilize abnormal fluctuations in the price of cement.

The PCA also asserted that the local construction industry needs a stable and reliable supply of high-grade cement with a 28-day compressive strength of at least 40Mpa. This kind of cement enables them to be a competitive force in the construction industry, especially with the entry into the country of multinational contractors.

Madrasto said that "40 Mpa cement is essential in achieving our target concrete strength for high-rise buildings and long-span bridges, increasing our output, speeding up construction period with faster curing time, and reducing the overall cost of construction with reduced cement factor. Had our members relied alone on the local cement available in the market, the reality of numerous high-rise buildings in key centers of the country as well as multitudes of infrastructure works constructed by Filipinos and besting foreigners in our land would never have been possible." He added that the "capability to produce can never be synonymous to availability in the market."