Rising cost of aggregates fails to impact Abu Dhabi prices

Rising cost of aggregates fails to impact Abu Dhabi prices
24 December 2009


Prices of cement in Abu Dhabi continues to remain stable despite an increase in the cost of aggregates.

According to figures released by the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi, the price of aggregates increased by almost 13 per cent this week.

A senior industry official said various factors, including a duty imposed by Oman, could have resulted in the increasing cost of raw materials used in the manufacturing of cement.

A tonne of crushed aggregate 3/8 increased by six per cent to Dh75 from Dh70 last week. Similarly the cost of ordinary aggregate ? rose by 11.53 per cent to Dh65 per tonne from Dh57.50 per tonne last week.

The  variety of crushed aggregate registered a 13.3 per cent increase to reach Dh75 per tonne compared to Dh65 last week.

Mohammed Noorullah, Factory Manager, Rock Cement Industries, said: "From December 1, Oman had introduced duty ranging between five and 10 per cent on exported materials. Also, the transportation cost has marginally risen. These are some of the factors that could have resulted in the increasing price of raw materials. Demand wise there has not been any change during the past few months. Thereby cement prices will continue to remain the same," said Noorullah.

The prices of most other building materials remained stable, apart from a decline of about nine per cent in the price of a category of block cement and block concrete.

There was a marginal decrease in the price of high tensile steel and wood compared to prices last week.

Price of sulphate resistant cement dropped by five per cent going down from Dh315 to Dh300/t.

The price of portland cement and white cement remained the same as last week, at Dh280 and Dh555 per tonne, respectively.

Price of solid block concrete fell by Dh360 per cubic metre going down from Dh5100 last week to Dh4740. Similarly price of block cement vacuum dropped by Dh300 to stand atDh3250 currently.

Meanwhile, according to a NCB capital report on the cement sector in Saudi Arabia, the year-on-year domestic sales rose by 15 per cent in November 2009.

However, this falls below the 22 per cent increase witnessed YoY during the first 10 months of 2009.

According to the report the decline in the November figure was a result of slower demand in the region.

Published under Cement News