SHAREDA calls a halt to price increase of stones

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KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Housing and Real Estate Developers Association (SHAREDA) has issued a call on the major player in the stone quarry business to consider halting the increase in the price of stones in Sabah.

The association’s president Datuk Susan Wong Siew Guen said, every type of construction work will require the material and any price hike will therefore burden the developers.

“We have been informed that the next price hike is scheduled for March 15, but it is better if there is no increase.

“We understand the hike in the cost of operational works but any increase to the price of stones will affect the prices of houses and buildings.

“If there is an increase of RM1 to RM2 is considered reasonable, but beyond that is no longer acceptable,” she said when contacted yesterday.

Wong was responding to the statement made by stone suppliers and contractors in the State on Saturday, who claimed to see red over the “unreasonable increase” in the price of the material over the last eight months.

They (stone suppliers and contractors) claimed the price of stones had gone up by RM5 since the middle of last year causing a domino effect on the prices of other building materials, which would consequently burden contractors and end users.

Stone supplier, Robert Chong of Staberg Enterprise said, he hoped Hap Seng Consolidated Berhad, being the major player in stone quarry products, would carry out its social obligation in helping contractors as well as the State to stabilise the price.

He urged Hap Seng Consolidated Berhad to play their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to help contractors in minimising construction costs because the price hike would cause a domino effect on the industry.

“We fear that the increase will affect the prices of houses and buildings and in the end, no one will afford to own a house,” said Chong, adding Hap Seng owns three of the major stone quarries in the West Coast of Sabah.

There are about 50 stone quarries statewide.

Meanwhile, a representative of Hap Seng Consolidated Berhad has declined comment and said the matter would be communicated to their management in Kuala Lumpur.