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An increase of at least 40 percent in the prices of cement, steel and other building materials has smothered house project activity in Iraq and inflicted heavy losses on local contractors, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.
OPEC member Iraq relies by nearly 60-70 percent on imported building materials and the war in Ukraine and global supply problems have sharply boosted the prices of those materials, the Arabic language daily Almada said.
“Steel prices have risen by nearly 40 percent over the past weeks while there was an increase of about 60 percent in the prices of other building materials,” the paper said, quoting Ismail Al-Rubai, Chairman of the Contractors’ Union in the Central-Eastern Dialaya Governorate.
“This has boosted the cost of building houses by 35-40 percent in Iraq and this in turn has put heavy pressure on citizens and forced them to suspend plans to build houses…this has led to a sharp slowdown in housing projects in the country.”
The paper quoted Iraqi contractor Hussein Al-Obaidi as saying the cement and steel price rise was complicated by a surge in transport costs due to higher petrol prices.
“The contractors are the main victims of this increase as it depressed activity and forced many customers to postpone payments to contractors…as a result, many developers and contractors have suffered large losses,” he said.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)