Tanzania government disturbed with cement price hikes

By Our Correspondent, DODOMA Tanzania

The recently appointed Tanzania Premier reiterated his desire to start work immediately with a mission of curbing the shooting prices of cement in the country.

A bag of cement had been sold between Tsh19,000 to 30,000 ((US$8.19 - 12.96) per 50Kg bag in other parts of the country while the actual price is TZS11,000/bag. the country has several large cement factories.

Kassim Majaliwa who was sworn in today November 16, at a ceremony that was held at State House Dodoma alongside Finance minister and his foreign affairs counterpart promise to starting with investigating the cause of cement price hikes in the country.

“Soon after the cabinet is formed I will visit every ministry to ask them to come up with a strategy of how to implement issues that were highlighted in the speech that you delivered in parliament last week,” Majaliwa promised President John Magufuli who presided over the swearing exercise.

He added: After this swearing in I know that my duties kick off right away because there are some of the things you highlighted in your speech and asked me to take them on immediately.   

He further said he was appalled by certain things that were going on such as the recent price increase of cement.

“President, as we kick off this new term there are some of us who have started taking things for granted for example the rise in cement prices. There is no way we can have cement prices skyrocketing to that extent,” said the Premier.

Dangote Cement in Tanzania apologised to the government for the failure to communicate to the public on the temporary shutdown of its plant for maintenance, which caused price hikes across the country.

However, Yves Mataigne, commercial director of Twiga Cement, said that the high demand for cement had led traders to hike prices, according to Dativa Minja. Three weeks ago the company met with its distributors and asked not to raise cement prices as the plant had not made any price increases. 

But the company’s production of 160,000tpm is insufficient to meet the country’s current cement demand.

Nyati Cement’s Assistant Sales and Marketing Manager, Michael Prosper, said it had not raised the price of cement but blamed the business community for unnecessarily raising prices. Its production capacity of 60,000tpd is also insufficient to meet current demand. 

However, he noted that post-COVID-19 demand has doubled.

"If the price of cement on the street has gone up, then the sellers have taken advantage due to the decline of cement supply in the market," he said.  He added that the huge number of ongoing construction projects countrywide has created high demand for cement while supply seems to have remained constant. -Africa