Ghana facing cement shortage

The Ghana market is facing a shortage of cement attributed to the closure of Diamond Cement Manufacturing company, which has resulted in prices being increased on the back of heightened demand.

Last week, CemNet news reported that  Diamond Cement had stopped operations due to power issues due to a transformer being damaged during a recent thunderstom. Operations at the plant were said to resume shortly.

Ghacem, the country’s leading cement producer and part of the HeidelbergCement group, has played down the impact of the shortage, saying that it is temporary. Strategic and Corporate Affairs Director of GHACEM, Dr. George Dawson-Ahmoah said the company continues to produce cement and is even contemplating increasing production capacity to 2.2Mt by the end of the month to meet growing demand. HACEM says there is no cause for alarm as they expect the situation to normalise in a few days.
A bag of cement last year sold at GH¢10.35 but shot up to GH¢13.34 because of the instability of the Ghanaian cedi. Distributers have a different price for a bag of cement which ranges between GH¢ 18.00 to GH¢ 26.00. (Source: Ghana Web).