LAHORE, April 5: Most cement producers on Wednesday raised their ex-factory price only a couple of days after a meeting with federal industries, production and special initiatives minister Jehangir Tareen. Cement dealers and retailers said the ex-factory cement prices now ranged between Rs340 and Rs360 per bag, while the retail price had surged to over Rs400 a bag in many areas of the city depending on the brand.

An executive of a company told Dawn that the cement producers were determining their ex-factory prices on a day-to-day basis. He said the ex-factory prices were expected to come down in the next few days or so once the supply situation improves as a result of temporary one-month voluntary moratorium on exports. Besides, he said, some manufacturers were also looking into the possibility of importing the commodity in order to help bridge the supply-demand imbalance.

The manufacturers had agreed to place a voluntary moratorium on exports till the end of this month and consider importing the commodity during their meeting with Tareen.

During that meeting, the manufacturers had expressed their inability to hold down the prices owing to the widening gap between demand and supply. They had explained to the minister that they were unable to meet the increasing demand for the commodity owing to a strong demand from public sector programmes, rebuilding of quake-hit areas in Azad Kashmir, enhanced requirements from the private sector and delay in the coming of new plants into operation, and as a consequence of imbalance between demand and supply the prices had registered a record increase.

The minister was also informed by the manufacturers about the timetable when the new units and kilns would come into operation. They said they expected the temporary demand and supply gap to be bridged within three to four months.

The cement producers had actually tried to bring home to the minister that the prices might come down from the current level, but it would be unrealistic for the government to expect them to fall back on the previous levels due to higher cost of transportation and energy.

The minister had assured the cement manufacturers that he would intervene and convene an inter-ministerial meeting to make more railway wagons available to the industry for transportation of imported coal and supply of cement to the domestic markets. He said he would again review the situation at end of this month.