JEDDAH, 22 May 2005 — Black marketeers are selling cement during the afternoons including Fridays to avoid investigative officials from the Ministry of Commerce.
Despite companies and contractors halting their demand for cement from local markets and the delays experienced from waiting for cargo shipments to arrive, the waiting list lengthens in the cement market issued by the Ministry of Commerce. After an intervention from the Ministry of Commerce and its price-fixation at SR14 per bag, black market cement trucks still appear every afternoon selling at prices that range between SR19-SR21, sometimes going up as high as SR24 after the Maghreb prayer. Abdullah Sharqawi, a customer, said “Distribution processes have become better organized than before.” He added “The black market is active in the afternoons when the distributors truck’s are done with distributing their loads and find that there is a shortage.”