The Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Cement Manufacturers Ghana (COCMAG), Rev. Dr George Dawson-Amoah, has revealed that the lack of raw materials is affecting the cement industry.

Ghanaian manufactures have been struggling to increase the price of cement on the local market due to price hikes on the importation of raw materials from the international market for the production of the commodity.

“Indeed, clinker price (Clinker + Freight) increased by 55% during the first half of 2021, and it’s expected even to reach 98%,” Rev. Dr George Dawson-Amoah told the media. [He told the media where?]

He added, “Consequently, despite the efforts to contain this raw materials crisis, the cement price has increased during the first half of 2021 by almost 20-25% and recently by another 5-10%.”

“It is important to mention that this is even not considering the forecast of raw materials prices which could reach the 100% of the increase. So that will continue to affect the cement price, unfortunately,” he said.

Trev Dr Dawson-Amoah lamented that the payment of a penalty in case of delay in offloading the clinker from ships is the biggest hurdle manufacturers face.

Dr Dawson-Amoah stated, “Any importer has contractual terms to respect otherwise; he will pay penalties. For example, for cement manufacturers, each day the vessel is delaying at the anchorage, or the port generates a penalty of $35,000 to $45000 ($15,000/day before 2020); this is called demurrage.”

“This situation worsened in April 2021 due to the congestion of the bulk terminals/berths and the exclusion by GPHA of the cement manufacturers to use the berths 1 and 2. Many petitions and discussions have been initiated by the chamber of cement manufacturers but are still under study by GPHA.

“In fact, we are having consistent discussions with Managers of GPHA in resolving these high demurrage charges due to the delays in the discharge of raw materials at the Port of Tema, and we are hopeful for an amicable resolution," he added.

Source: GhanaWeb