The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

and NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Reporters

New Providence is “running very low” on cement supplies due to a combination of shipping delays and surging post-COVID construction activity, merchants disclosed yesterday.

They told Tribune Business that tropical storms in the Gulf of Mexico, which have held-up incoming shipments, have imposed short-term pressure on cement supplies but the impact is unlikely to last long-term.

Philip Andrews, Bahamas Redi-Mix Concrete’s managing director, told Tribune Business: “We’re not out of cement, but the island is running very low. We’re supposed to have our shipment come in next week.

“We have had shipping problems with the cement, because our shipment was supposed to have been here a week ago but they had some kind of storm in the Gulf of Mexico and that’s where our boats come from, the Gulf of Mexico. There was a tropical storm that went over into the Gulf and up past Alabama.” 

Distributors and suppliers, both in The Bahamas and internationally, are struggling to catch up with construction industry demand due to the supply chain backlog that resulted from factory/plant shutdowns at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and other health restrictions. 

Mr Andrews added: “We’ve still got cement and we’re still open, but there’s a shortage on bag cement, which is causing a slowdown of everything. Our bulk cement is going to come in on June 29. I don’t do bag cement; you would have to talk to some of the other suppliers here that do bag cement for the smaller contractors.

“Bulk cement is running low but bag cement is the main issue that’s causing the slowdown of the smaller construction. We’re able to continue producing ready mix, so we’re still servicing the bigger jobs that have their own cement that have been able to keep things going, but I think the smaller guys are running out of bag cement so they can’t proceed with their jobs.” 

Terry Kemp, operations manager at Premix Concrete Ltd, said the cement shortage in The Bahamas was due to external factors outside the local industry’s control.

He acknowledged that “there is a shortage of supply because our foreign supplier got caught up in the global problem of deliveries because of COVID-19. But this is nothing to do with anything or anyone on the island. We ordered something and if they can’t bring it in now, they can bring it whenever they can bring it in. We can’t do anything about it.

“Basically this is a global problem we’re having, just like with lumber and everything else. This will probably be like this for a while and in the next couple of weeks we should be up and going,” Mr Kemp added. “This is a problem that’s not a Bahamian problem. It’s a foreign problem because of all of these ships that are backed up.” 

Leonard Sands, the former Bahamian Contractors Association (BCA) president, yesterday said cement supplies “on the whole island have been out” but the situation appeared to have eased over the last few days.

“Some suppliers are rationing out cement supplies,” he added. “You cannot buy any once over a certain amount. For some reason we kind of ran out. Everybody was using a ton of it, and the whole island ran short. It’s an indication of how much construction is going on.

“I think it’s going to be short-term. Like everything, the post-pandemic increase in activity is happening, and we see it being very short-term. Activity has held up, and you’re going to see very strong activity in the third quarter and fourth quarter of this year.

“I think the challenge with cement is going to level off because the product is close enough, in Haiti, Mexico and Florida, to get more in. I don’t think we’ll have the challenge of an outright shortage. I don’t see that happening.”

Stephen Wrinkle, another ex-BCA president, said that while he had not been impacted by any cement shortage he had heard of challenges faced by others. “We consume a tremendous amount of cement on a daily basis,” he added, noting that construction timelines and costs would only increase if it was unavailable for use in concrete, block walls and plastering.