Construction sector:

Cement supply increases but prices stagnate

The South African High Commissioner to Cameroon, ZaneleMakina, announced the move last weekend

By Nche Jude Mbah in Yaounde

Cement factories have multiplied in the country

Cement companies in Cameroon have all announced the ambition to extend their factories and step up annual production to about seven million tons by 2018 but price remain disturbingly high.

It is barely one and half years when the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Philemon Yang cut the symbolic ribbon in Douala declaring Ciments de l'Afrique Cameroun (CIMAF) officially operational in Cameroon.

                The Moroccan company which is effectively present in five different countries in Africa: Ivory Coast, Guinea Conakry, Burkina Faso, Gabon and Congo Brazzaville and which had been supplying cement in Cameroon was injecting 500,000 metric tons of the product into the market while announcing its ambitions to step up production to about one million metric tons in the near future. That future appears to be now.

                According to a press statement the company issued recently, it has decided to triple its production capacity by extending its factory to increase supply to 1.5 million metric tons by 2018. If one were to go by the figures provided by the various cement companies operating in the country, then the 500,000 metric tons brought to 3.6 million tons the quantity of cement put into the Cameroonian market annually.

                Cimenterie du Cameroun (Cimencam), on its part, last March 16, launched the construction of a new production factory in Nomayos in Mbankomo near Yaounde, bringing to three the number of factories belonging to the company.

CIMENCAM says it is investing FCFA 28 billion into the project for an annual production capacity of 500,000 metric tons.

                Dangote Cement; Africa’s leading cement producer that went operational in Cameroon in March 2015 precisely in Douala, is equally planning to open another factory in Yaounde in a bit to double production. Its present annual production stands at 1.5 million tons.

                Estimated demand for cement in the country today stands at 2.8 million metric tons. The situation even changed for the better when MEDCEM, the Turkish company went operational, producing additional 600,000 metric tons of cement.

                The plethora of cement companies in the country is seen as a blessing and a timely response to the plea of many Cameroonians but the most disturbing thing however is the complete absence of the application of the law of demand and supply whereby an increase in production entails a drop in price.

                So far, the price of a 50 kg bag of cement remains at average FCFA 4,800 for all brands of cement. Cameroonians are still to come to terms with this rather intriguing situation. Is it an arrangement between the various companies to keep the rates at that high level? Is it a result of high taxes on input? Or, is it simply a manifestation of bad faith? Answers to these questions are blowing in the wind.