A housing developer believes there has never been any shortage of cement to meet local demand.

Joseph Ting King Sung, who is also the vice-president of Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developer’s Association, said the cement shortage was due to logistics and transportation problems from the Kuching suppliers.

“If the suppliers had done their homework and supplied enough cement to local developers before the wet season started, then such a problem would not have arisen. To say there is a shortage of cement to meet local demand is therefore very misleading.”

Ting was referring to the recent uproar here over the  cement shortage encountered by housing developers.

Chairman of Sibu Mason and Carpenters’ Association, Paul Ling Hui Ching, said the cement shortage was so acute that almost 90 per cent of housing development activities here had come to a standstill.

He also mentioned that for the month of December, they obtained their supply from Kuching on two occasions, which were hardly enough to meet the demand from the construction companies.

“The few bags of cement were immediately snapped up and many contractors were left high and dry. It was early Chinese New Year holidays for them.”

Following the complaints, CMS group managing director Datuk Richard Curtis attributed the insufficient supply in Sibu to the unscheduled four-day shutdown of its Bintulu plant in late November due to an unforeseen technical breakdown.

He also said the situation was compounded by the exceptionally bad weather which seriously disrupted loading and unloading of bagged cement to be delivered by barge to Sibu from its Kuching plant to compensate for the Bintulu production shortfall.

Cement is delivered across Sarawak either in 50kg or one-ton jumbo bags or in bulk; the last option being preferred by construction firms with larger cement orders and requirements.

Ting said the weather would not have been a problem had the supplier made a calculated move to transport sufficient cement to Sibu earlier.

“Everyone knows December is when the rainy season starts and the onus is on the supplier to make early preparations rather than wait till the last minute to deliver the cement.”

It was learnt that strong waves had destroyed a shipload of cement bound for Sibu early this month, prompting the Kuching supplier to stop the supply.

Like other housing developers, Ting said he was also badly affected by the cement shortage here.

As a result, Ting said he was contemplating getting the cement direct from Kuching over land.

“But that is costly, compared to shipment by sea. Nevertheless, if worse comes to worst, we might be compelled to travel all the
way to Kuching to get the supply in order to get our project moving.”