Lafarge Mauritius raises cement price by 7%

Lafarge Cement Mauritius Ltd has announced it will raise the price of a 50kg bag of cement following Holcim's move to increase prices by six per cent at the start of this year.

Lafarge said it was raise prices from MUR170/bag (US$5.55) to MUR182 (US$5.94) on Monday.

The company said the price increase was necessary due to a number of factors. Import, insurance and freight costs have risen by around 6.7 per cent and other costs have been subject to inflationary increases, says the cement maker. In addition, the US dollar has appreciated by about 5.5 per cent compared to the Mauritian rupee. To date these costs had not been passed on to the customer.

In separate news, the State Trading Corporation (STC) launched last week a call for tenders for the supply of 100,000t of cement to the country. Delivery will take place between early April and late July. "The aim is to gauge the market. The offers that we receive allow us to have an idea of ??the price of cement in the market,” said STC.