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Dozens to be probed in cement crisis

JEDDAH: More than 70 people involved in the current crisis of cement shortage in Jeddah will be investigated and sentenced according to the rules and regulations of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported Friday quoting an official source.

The source, however, assured consumers that about 40 trucks loaded with 24,000 bags of cement would be at points of sale in Jeddah within the next few hours.

He revealed that the ministry had reached an agreement with three cement factories to provide enough quantities of cement to cater to the needs of the local market.

The source said trucks owned by the accused were caught in various parts of the city selling cement at black market prices of SR23 per bag.

He said a special committee, formed by Jeddah Gov. Prince Mishaal bin Majed, has raided about 15 warehouses where cement was being sold by foreigners who signed agreements with contractors executing a number of government projects to sell them cement at high prices. "This has created an acute shortage in the quantities of cement available in the market," he added.

The source said reports coming to the ministry showed that the regions of Makkah , Madinah and Jazan were facing shortage of cement for no apparent reason.

The newspaper reported crowds of people at points of sale and said security forces had to intervene to pacify angry consumers and organize them in long queues. The consumers were demanding that the representatives of the ministry and the committee make sure that each of them gets his share of 20 bags.

Market sources believe the crisis was created by the inability of the factories to work at full capacity because they were not given enough quantities of fuel. They said trucks would line in front of the factories at least for a week to be loaded and added that this was another reason behind the crisis.

The sources said the tight control of the market by the ministry and the security organs forced traders to sell cement secretly to consumers at higher prices.

Abdullah Al-Ammar, a contractor, did not see any justification for the shortage. "This is an artificial crisis created by some traders who wanted to monopolize cement and stack it away in their stores and only sell it when its prices were up," he said.

Al-Ammar asked the Commerce Ministry to impose harsher punitive measures against traders who were caught selling cement on the black market or hiding it until its prices were up and said the problem would soon be resolved when the two newly licensed factories started operating.

Abdul Aziz Hifni, a former member of the committee of contractors at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, believed that the crisis was fake not real. "The factories are producing at full capacity and only a few months ago there were large quantities of cement at the factories and warehouses," he said.

The crisis began in Jeddah a few weeks ago and soon extended to the Central Region. The traders and market dealers could not agree on the real causes behind the crisis. Some of them believed that the crisis resulted from the monopoly of a importers while others attributed it to high demand and low supply.

© Arab News 2012