If you `wanna` settle in Dar, deepen your pockets!

BY GERALD KITABU

5th January 2014

Bulk trucks packing cement at Tanzania Portland cement Company Ltd at Wazo Hill, Dar es Salaam ready for dispatching yesterday, TPCC dispatches 5,000 tones every day. (Photo by Gerald Kitabu)

Cement dealers in the city of Dar es Salaam are now holding everyone at ransom  they want to decide how much you pay for your new house.

Our investigations reveal that cement dealers in Dar es Salaam have since decided to gang up and create a shortage of the product in the city and its environs. 

Most dealers insist they are not to blame, saying cement production went down due to shortage of raw materials in December  felt most by Lafarge Tanzania Limited (formerly Mbeya Cement Company Limited)  which  will now increase its price by Sh 400 for a bag of a 50kg bag effective next Monday following increased power tariffs by 31 percent effective this month. 
Some dealers in Dar es Salaam also attributed the low production of the product to an increase in power tariffs effected mid last month by the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) via the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) and the government. 

They claimed that producers switched off some plants to reduce power costs that they were likely to incur but a close follow-up by the Guardian on Sunday revealed that the fears were not borne out.

The Guardian on Sunday found during random interviews that a bag sold Sh15,000, instead of the normal authorized prize of Sh14,000.

Further surveys around Kijitonyama, Manzese and Sinza suburbs showed most cement retail shops were empty, causing confusion among customers  who had to go from one place to another to find a stocked seller. 

The retailers said in interviews that most cement production firms had scaled down production, ostensibly to reduce power bills.  

“We have no cement and the agents have increased the price from Sh14,000 to Sh14,600,” one of them noted, saying for this reason many shops are empty.

When contacted for comment, one cement agent, Ujenzi Stores Ltd in Mwenge and Manzese, confirmed that cement had gone missing from mid-December.

Marketing manager Ramadhan Musa and Mohamed Hashim said at different occasions  that there was a cement crisis from December 14 to 25 due to lack of raw materials.

“That’s why cement went missing due to decreased production capacity from the cement companies.” they said.

 “If you are used to pay a driver Sh40,000 per day and he stays in a queue for four days, that’s Sh160,000 without obtaining anything. Will you sell the item at the same price?” he asked.

They said at this period, the customers should brave for higher prices although it will not take long time before it comes to normal because the supply of the product to the retail shops takes time.

However, when reached for comment, Tanzania Portland Cement Company strongly refuted rports that it had reduced production.

The company’s director of human resources Jayne Nyimbo-Taylor said the company was in full production and had never at any one point reduced output.

She said that the company released 5,000 tons of cement everyday and that amount had never gone down over the past year. “Usually at the end of the year workers work very hard to raise production so as to get a bonus,” she said.

Towards end of the year, workers are motivated by bonus, so they work very hard to increase production and surpass the target to get this bonus, “so whoever tells you that production capacity has decreased is imagining things,” she said.

 The directed market price is Sh. 14,000 and not Sh15,000 as sold by various cement dealer, she further affirmed, noting that before November last year, the directed market price was Sh13,500 which rose by Sh 500 to Sh14,000 “so, any person who sells our cement at Sh15,000 is doing so on his own account,” she further noted.

Commenting on hiked power tariffs, she said that the company usually reviews it plans at the start of the year and this has not yet taken place, so it was a bit difficult to tell how much the company has been affected.

She pointed out that the company was the second largest customer of TANESCO and wherever there is intent of increasing the power tariff, they are normally informed first and involved.

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY