While the Petroleum Products Distribution Company refused to supply fuel oil to cement factories in the hot season, the price of this product has now risen by 250 percent, but the price of cement is still suppressed and no price adjustment has been allowed.
Reza Jamaranian, president of the Cement Industry Employers’ Association, criticized the cement pricing of cement and explained: “The price of cement is such that the ability of the factories of this industry to continue the production process has been drastically reduced and the factories They have faced many problems. However, if pricing based on the economic realities of the country is not on the agenda, we will continue to see bigger problems and sometimes the disappearance of this industry in the country.
In response to the question of what effect the increase in cement prices will have on housing prices, Jamaranian said: The impact of cement prices on housing is less than one percent and the increase in the price of this product has nothing to do with the increase in housing prices. Unfortunately, some people try to link everything to the increase in housing prices because they benefit from the increase in housing prices, but this is not the case. According to the official reports of the Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, the price of cement is less than one percent affecting the price of housing, and this is more of an excuse to suppress the price of cement.
Emphasizing that the price of cement is not subject to the economic realities of the country, the head of the Cement Industry Employers Association added: “The price increase in the cement production inputs sector has not been applied to the final price of this product.” In other words, the final price of each product depends on price fluctuations in the production input sector, but due to mandatory pricing, this has not happened in the cement industry and has caused irreparable damage to this industry.
Referring to the increase in fuel oil prices and the lack of effect of this price increase on cement, Jamaranian explained: “On the one hand, the oil products distribution company did not deliver the fuel oil needed by the cement industry to factories on time and in the hot six months of the year.” The price of this fuel has increased by more than 250% and its supply is not economically justified considering the current price of cement. Meanwhile, the gas of some factories has been cut off. The combination of these factors led to the sale of each ton of cement using fuel oil at prices less than 450 thousand tomans per ton, without economic justification. On this basis, the price of cement should be corrected as soon as possible so that factories can continue the production process with the minimum possible.