THERE are more calls for the Government to consider expanding the quota for cement imports, with players in the construction sector complaining that the shortage of supplies from Caribbean Cement Company has been worsening over the last few days.

Robert Dabdoub, owner of New Budget Supplies Hardware Limited on Hagley Park Road in St Andrew, said the situation is so bad that he is now getting “maybe 20 per cent” of the cement he normally gets to sell to his customers, and has to resort to selling “two, two and five, five bags of cement” to the retail trade.

“As for people who want hundreds [of bags of cement], I can’t supply that,” Dabdoub told the Jamaica Observer Thursday as he outlined the plight his company is facing. He said cement sales account for “maybe 10 per cent” of his entire sales but said not having it has impacted the sale of all other hardware items in his store.

“If you don’t have cement, you cut a lot of other sales in the hardware business. Not having it is stifling the industry,” Dabdoub added.

His sentiments were echoed by other players in the market who spoke with BusinessWeek about the matter.

Colin Bell, owner of DIB Block Factory and Hardware Supplies, operates six hardwares across Portland, St Mary and St Ann, as well as a block-making factory and a pre-mix business. As with Dabdoub, Bell said he has been unable to get his regular supply of cement, and only received 800 bags to share amongst his stores on Wednesday.

“It is beating us bad really, really, really, enuh. It is beating us bad,” Bell lamented. “We can’t get any cement. We are now getting one load every two weeks for the last month and a half,” he added.

“My sales are down at least 35 per cent when I checked last week — and that’s the total sales across all my hardwares because we have little cement to sell, and cement sales affect everything else.”

Bell said he is in a WhatsApp group with other hardware players from “Negril to Morant Point” — highlighting they are all from the length and breadth of Jamaica — and all are having the same problem.

“Even today [Thursday], I have a customer who wanted 300 bags and I have to only give him 50 out of the 800 bags I got yesterday [Wednesday],” he said as he outlined that he has “to try and spread it as best as I can”.

Again, Gail McLean, the operator of George Kirby Hardware which is located in May Pen, Clarendon and Christiana, Manchester, had the same complaint.

“We can’t get cement,” McLean said. “It has impacted business, because when cement is not selling, nothing else sells. My business is down at least 80 per cent.”

McLean said she normally buys one or one and a half load of cement “every other day” for her stores, amounting to 900 bags, but has only received 600 bags in the last two weeks.

“We are still suffering as businesses to make a living. My costs and my expenses have not dropped, and we are not selling anything much because we have no cement,” she added.

The shortage has led to those impacted calling for the Government to open up the importation of cement so more players can enter the market and supplement supplies from Caribbean Cement Company.

“We need more players in the industry; we can’t be left to depend on just one supplier. It has happened before — once something goes wrong there is a ripple effect. We need other players in the market to provide us with other sources to get some cement,” Dabdoub appealed.

“For too many years they have not been able to efficiently supply the market and they have caused several disruptions — as they have now with a lack of supply — and the only way to solve this is for the Government to increase the quota for other people to bring it in,” he reasoned.

Bell also echoed the sentiment, adding that his block-making operation and pre-mix company have also been impacted.

“I have a few sites where I am contracted to pour decking and foundations, and I have to be putting them off for the last few weeks now,” Bell said.

Caribbean Cement Company currently has a deal in place with the Government for it to supply 90 per cent of the cement used in the island, with imports making up the other 10 per cent. At least one player said the import quota should be increased to 35 per cent of the market.

“You can’t have the country at the mercy of one producer because things happen — and when it goes wrong, the cost is too great; everything slows down. Without cement, the sale of every other business material slows down and hardware sales slow down,” another hardware player commented but asked not to be identified. He added that when cement sales slow down, work on construction sites also slows.

Caribbean Cement Company, for its part, in a release last week said it is “actively addressing the current challenges and are implementing measures to ensure a steady and reliable supply of cement”, with its operations running for 24 hours producing “over 4,000 metric tonnes” per day, which is higher than for which it had planned.

Efforts to get an update on the situation from Caribbean Cement proved futile. However, the company is currently executing an expansion plan which will increase its production capacity by up to 30 per cent.

But that is of little comfort to Dabdoub who said that with Caribbean Cement Company not producing enough cement for the market, it should be opened up at least until it can do so. Other players say they have experienced shortages at one time or another of cement in the last seven years, and this shortage now threatens to worsen the forecast recession the country may face over the next few quarters.

“So while Carib Cement is getting their act together — which is taking years — they should allow other people to bring cement in, that’s all I am saying, because the interest of one company cannot take precedence over the interest of the nation. So, if they are underperforming they should not be protected with quotas — and they are underperforming,” Dabdoub said.

The construction sector, which depends heavily on cement, has been declining for the last seven quarters.