KOTA KINABALU (Jan 10): Cement Industries (Sabah) Sdn Bhd (CIS) has increased the price of cement by five to 15 percent effective January 4.
The company issued a statement on Tuesday stating that the price hike was made after taking into consideration the rise of raw materials and freight shipping costs.
However it stated that the cement price is still reasonable compared to other states.
It explained in a statement on Tuesday that the price increase was to ensure that it can continue to supply quality cement and meet the needs in Sabah.
The cement manufacturing cost has increased recently, especially in 2022. This is due to current macroeconomic factors and the significant rise in the American dollar.
As has been reported in the local media recently, the price of cement in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia has increased dramatically. In Peninsular Malaysia, for example, the price of cement had risen 30 percent last year.
CIS said its cement plant is not an integrated one like others in Malaysia. It has to import raw materials from outside Sabah and this has been greatly affected by external factors such as shipping costs and the increase in the US dollar.
It is also common knowledge that the price of other building materials continued to go up by 10 to 40 percent in 2022.
CIS said it will continue to commit to supply sufficient and quality cement.
For that purpose, the company has diversified its cement products by producing Portland Composite Cement grade 32.5N and high quality cement (High Strength Cement) grade 52.N to meet the needs of consumers and the construction sector in this state so that it can achieve the goal of “Sabah Maju Jaya”.