Cement prices have already doubled since the beginning of the year in
Russia, yet the price growth reached its peak in August and September 2007.
As regards Sverdlovsk Region, the price race is actually comparable to that
in Moscow.

‘It all depends on a particular supplier and their pricing policies.
Nevyansk plant, for one, chose to freeze all the prices, whereas
Gornozavodskcement raises prices by 7% to 10% on a monthly basis,’ SK Master
Investment and Building Company’s Sales Manager Siamudin Agakhanov said to
local press.

There is a little profiteering at play as well. Prices have grown by nearly
one-third in the last two weeks alone; this has to do with both the cement
shortage and the producers and traders’ desire to make more money with the
help of a popular product,’ TSK Group’s Supply Director Dmitriy Gorshenin
says.

Mr. Agakhanov believes prices will keep going up for the next six months or
so, with perhaps a little halt in December and January. Yet the growth is
likely to resume as soon as February 2008.