Cement to cost 5% more
Published:Wednesday | July 6, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Caribbean Cement Company Limited has put a five per cent mark up on bagged cement, but insists that the adjustment was small enough to maintain prices below year-ago levels.
On July 11, the ex-factory price of Carib Cement Plus moves from J$525 to J$550. It said cement sold at J$568 per bag in July 2010 when its last price increase was implemented.
Caribbean Cement on Tuesday pitched the new price adjustment as a revision of a seven per cent price cut that was implemented in October 2010, a move that ended up hurting operations as energy and other production costs climb.
"Carib Cement had been negatively affected by a 25 per cent increase in the cost of diesel, a 34 per cent increase in coal, a 40 per cent increase in heavy fuel oil, a 4 per cent increase in packaging and a 21 per cent increase in the cost of electricity," the Rockfort Kingston-based operation said Tuesday in a company release.
The increase follows a poor first quarter in which the company made an operating loss of J$277 million. The 2010 period was also one of the company's worst years on record - it lost J$2 billion on operations (J$1.6 billion after tax credits) some due to a soft market as well as rivalry from imports.
Caribbean Cement said cement typically accounts for about 10 per cent of home construction costs and that the price increase for Carib Cement Plus would add no more than about one per cent to costs.