ABANDONED: A housing project left in limbo after the cement shortage hit the housing industry here.
SIBU: Building contractors here are banking their hopes on CMS Cement to ensure that Sibu will have adequate supply of cement to meet the local demand.
They are hoping that CMS will deliver what it promised so that the entire housing industry will be able to prosper.
Chairman of Sibu Mason and Carpenters’ Association Paul Lau Hui Ching said the cement shortage here was so acute that almost 90 per cent of housing development activities here had come to a standstill.
“The promise from CMS cement is therefore timely and we hope to see better times ahead as we sail into 2012,” he added when contacted.
Lau was referring to the clarification from CMS Group managing director Datuk Richard Curtis over an unscheduled four-day shutdown of its Bintulu plant in late November due to unforeseen technical breakdown.
Curtis also said the situation was compounded by the exceptionally bad weather which seriously disrupted loading and unloading of bagged cement to be delivered by barge to Sibu from its Kuching plant to compensate for Bintulu plant’s production shortfall.
Cement is delivered across Sarawak either in 50kg or one-ton jumbo bags or in bulk; the latter being preferred by construction firms with larger cement orders and requirements.
Curtis had also mentioned that there was some limited short term supply disruption in Sibu and CMS was doing its best to overcome the shortfall.
“Hopefully, the promises from Curtis will ensure that contractors here will no longer have to face shortage of cement,” Lau added.
“The unprecedented situation is the most critical in recent years. If the relevant authorities still stay at the sidelines and refuse to help look for remedies, there is every possibility that the housing industry here could suffer a total slowdown,” he said.
Lau said many housing developers and contractors had already stopped work as they could hardly get a bag of cement for their construction sites.
“From the lorry drivers to the construction workers and the businessmen dealing with hardware stores, everyone is suffering. There is no job and therefore no income. Something needs to be done to alleviate the dire situation,” he said emphatically.
He added that it was not all rosy for the housing developers as the cement shortage had also deprived them of business opportunities.
For the month of December, Lau disclosed they obtained their supply from Kuching on two occasions which was hardly enough to meet the demand from the construction companies.
“The few bags of cement were immediately snapped up and it was simply not enough for distribution. Many contractors were left high and dry and without a single bag of cement, it is early Chinese New Year holidays for them,” he said.
Lau said even those who managed to `grab’ the few bags of cement could only work for two to three days per week, which did not augur well for the development of the housing industry here.
On the Bintulu plant supplying cement to Sibu, Lau said as far as he knew none of them got their supply from it.
“We are getting our supply from Kuching and that is why when there is problem in Kuching, we will not be able to get our supply,’ he said.