Yemen to import more cement

Yemen’s military economic corporation is working in coordination with the ministry of industry and trade to import cement to meet the needs of the local markets, a source in the corporation said. The measure comes to counteract black markets that are creating the shortage by increasing prices in the face of the demand.   In press reports, the deputy board chairman of the general corporation of cement marketing Mohammed Yahya Shanif denied that the corporation is behind the increase of the cement prices, saying that the marketing policy of the corporation remains as it was. The corporation runs three state cement factories. Shanif said a field committee had reviewed the state of the cement market and was monitoring prices, adding that the corporation would take a hard stance on those behind the shortage and bring them to justice.

In addition to imported cement, the corporation will extend production lines of its Amran, Bajal and Al-Barah plants to 5Mt annually by 2007. The director of Amran Cement Factory Noman Doeed told Saba news agency that the factory would cover demand in the local market. Doeed said, "The country is witnessing an expansion in building. There will be no increase in cement prices of the factory."