“All the concerned authorities, including the Ministry of Commerce, the labor office, security agencies and the traffic department have been strictly monitoring the market. We had monitored the sale of 13 truckloads of cement, each bag priced at SR15, in Abha on Tuesday,” the source said.

Despite the claims of the so-called strict monitoring, the black market is still flourishing in the region, according to a report in Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper.

A few days ago, authorities arrested a foreigner who had allegedly adopted fraudulent means with regard to the sale of cement at a distribution center in Abha.

Some foreign workers have allegedly been playing tricks while selling the product to customers. They give more bags to some customers while ignoring others. Some citizens from Markaz Qina in Tihama complained a number of truck operators refused to sell them cement saying the entire truckload was sold out in advance. Even though a police patrol unit was alerted, they did not take any action against them, the citizens said.  

Citizen Ahmad Al-Saadi said the price of cement per bag has risen to SR25 at Qana Center.

“Only a small quantity of cement is reaching the Qana Center and there is no way for the citizens to get sufficient quantities,” he said.

Some local residents are forced to move to remote regions where black markets are flourishing to buy sufficient quantities of cement.

One citizen told the newspaper that he bought cement from the black market after going to a remote region and paying SR20 per bag.

Local residents had to wait for hours in queues formed in front of sales outlets to buy cement. Some citizens are taking their families to avoid standing in queues stretching up to a kilometer.

A number of managers of ready-mix concrete plants in Asir said the cement crisis has hampered implementation of several construction projects.

“We used to complete concrete work on an average area of 1,200 square meters a day before the crisis. But now it has fallen to 600 square meters,” said one manager.

Saad Al-Mobti, head of the committee for contractors at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Abha, said the shortage of cement has delayed implementation of several housing projects in the region.