Talking to Arab News on Friday, they said the price per bag at the retail shops has risen to SR23 from between SR14-15.
The contractors said in addition to the skyrocketing prices, there was a scarcity in supply — be it at the retail or wholesale shops.
They did not shy away from accusing the cement factories of being behind the crisis and asked the Commerce Ministry to intensify its inspection raids and to name traders, who mark up the prices, in the local media.
The Consumer Protection Association had earlier said the government was keen to provide enough quantities of cement and to prevent its price hikes through the prevention of exporting the commodity to other countries.
It said the cost of producing a bag of cement was not exceeding SR6 while it was sold in the retail shops at SR15, thus making profits of more than 100 percent.
The association accused the cement factories of attempting to impose a monopoly over the commodity to make huge profits while the government was supporting them through the creation of a conducive investment environment and through interest-free loans from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund.
The cement crisis in the Western region has been simmering for the past two years with cement factories blaming Saudi Aramco for not providing them with enough fuel for production. Aramco, however, rejected the accusation and said the quantity of fuel it was giving to the factories was enough to enable them to increase their production capacity by more than 16 percent.
During the crisis, Commerce Ministry shamed a number of distributors by publishing their names in the newspapers for unjustifiably raising the cement prices.
Meanwhile, the branch of the Commerce Ministry in Madinah has announced that a representative would supervise the distribution of cement among the citizens at a special location in the north of the holy city.
“Any distribution of the cement outside this particular location would not be permitted,” the ministry warned.
