Cement maker’s jiffy about prices
The cement companies and realty developers in the Telangana-Andhra Pradesh region are at loggerheads over the sudden spiralling of prices of the building material in the last few weeks.
The bitter truth which is about this is that both cement and realty prices had hit near rock bottom before Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated on June 2. Cement prices plummeted to around Rs 200 a bag of 50 kg, while real estate prices were stagnant in most places or down in some. With hopes of the economic revival following political stability after the bifurcation, cement companies scaled up prices. In a span of 45 days (by mid-July), the average price was hovering between Rs 290 and Rs 320 a bag (up from Rs 200-240) in Hyderabad.
In the city of Bangalore, the current price is Rs 345-370, while in Chennai it is sold at Rs 310-340. This rise, at a time when there was no growth in demand, sparked opposition from builders’ associations, which alleged that the price increase was the unwarranted, unilateral and a result of cartelisation in the cement industry. The price problem over cement has become a regular issue.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
