The consumers urged the ministry to keep a close watch on the market to prevent such violations. Some small traders and expatriate workers will stock cement bags and create an artificial shortage in supply in order to sell them for high prices, they claimed.
Saad Al-Ghamdi, who is building his house, said he was surprised when some expatriate vendors offered him cement at a “special price” of SR18 yesterday, a day after the ministry fixed the prices at SR14.
“One of the vendors told me he had brought the bags from a distributor and not from a factory,” he added.
Expatriate vendors appear with cement bags in the evening when the ministry’s monitoring squad are away from the market and can control prices without fearing anybody, Al-Ghamdi said.
A shortage in cement supply was reported yesterday in some cities.
Prices in these cities crossed SR20 per bag because of huge demand and inadequate supply.
Cement consumers Abdul Maula Al-Sayyed and Abdullah Al-Shahri said some street vendors were selling cement at the rate of SR25 in the absence of monitoring authorities. They called on the ministry to prevent vendors from tinkering with prices unreasonably and ensure enough supply.
Maatouk Al-Thaqafi and Rashid Al-Manjoumi blamed distributors and vendors for high cement prices as they keep cement bags in their warehouses to artificially create a shortage. They sell the bags on the black market for prices reaching SR26, they added.
Fellow consumers Muhammad Al-Joaid and Saud Al-Zahrani advised the ministry to set up a team of monitors including governorate representatives to contain increasing prices. Monitoring authorities should check prices round the clock to stop any foul play, they added.
