Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Trade and Industry began this week “naming and shaming” entities selling cement above the set ministry price of SAR14 per bag (US$3.7).

The ministry named the cement trading company Abdullah Bin Muhammad Bin Ibrahim Al-Atyan for selling cement at SAR19 and investigations are continuing with the owners of several other firms observed conducting the same practices.


A source from the ministry told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that increased monitoring at cement markets and measures to penalize offenders have come in response to the recent Royal Decree tasking the Ministry of Trade and Industry with deterring price fixing by setting penalties and publicly defaming offenders “whoever they may be”.

The Royal Order instructed that the measures be applied with “zero tolerance or leniency”.