Kathmandu: Cement has become costlier by an average of Rs 30 to Rs 40 per 50-kg sack following an increase in the price of petroleum products, clinker and increased hours of load-shedding.

The rise in cost of production would soon reflect in the local market. At present, cement is available in the range of Rs 500 to Rs 710 per sack depending on strength. With the increase in prices, customers have to pay an additional amount of Rs 30 to Rs 40 per sack.

“Currently, most companies have not increased the price as the demand of cement is very low but they are all set to increase the price sooner than later,” said Dhurba Thapa, Vice-President of Cement Producer?s Association (CPA) and proprietor of Tej Cement. The demand of cement increases as the construction activities start smoothly from mid-February.

Some companies, however, have already increased the piece stating difficulties in meeting the production costs. “As the price of clinker has increased in the Indian market, and this coupled with an increase in the price of petroleum products and prolonged hours of power cuts, the production cost has increased by almost 15 percent due to which the companies are forced to raise the prices,” informed Aatma Ram Murarka, president of CPA and proprietor of Shaktiman Cement.

Tej Bom, proprietor of Ambe Cement, said despite low demand we have no options but to increase the prices due to increase in the production cost. “We have now increased the price only by Rs 25 per 50-kg sack not to create more burdens for the customers but the price will further go up within a few months,” informed Bom.

Earlier, manufactures increased the price of cement in November by Rs 50 to Rs 60 per sack, citing an increase in the price of raw materials and high transportation costs.

“As the production cost has increased by more than 10 percent, the price of cement will further go up by 30 to 40 percent within a few months,” informed Murarka.

Price of cement in Nepal is highly dependent on the price of clinker imported from India. Hence, any increase in price of clinker in India leads to increase in price in the Nepali market. Nepal is a huge importer of readymade Indian cement and clinkers.Annual demand of cement in Nepali market is around 3 million metric tons.

source: republica,1 Feb 2012