The price of cement, one of the prime building materials has gone  high in the last few days, forcing some who needed the commodity to end up taking fewer to carry on their various projects.

The Tide has gathered that in the first and early second weeks of December 2011, cement prices had ranged between N1,800 and N1,900.

It was gathered that the new price regime of between N2,400 and N2,300 began towards the end of the second week of December.

Speaking to The Tide while answering questions on the new price regime of 50kg bag of cement product, a cement merchant and dealer in building materials in Port Harcourt, Mr. Livingston Eze said that up till Tuesday in the second week of December, he was still selling cement at the rate of N1,800 and N1,900.

He said that price changed when on Wednesday of that week, he could not get supply, which compelled him to take steps to get his supply, which he said was at a higher cost.

Mr. Livingston whose business operation is based along the East-West road axis is of Port Harcourt said “right now I sell a bag of Eagle Cement at N2,300, while the Bua Cement and others are N2,200.

Another dealer, whom The Tide cornered on the said price regime, Michael Amadi opined that the charge in the price of cement was not a surprise to him because he had envisaged it, additing that it might still go up if nothing was done, because the season for demand has set in.

Michael therefore urged the Federal authorities to put to practice the programme it promise to put in place to tackle the skyrocketing price of cement in Nigeria, to enable people carry on development work.

Corlins Walter