TCL hikes cement price by 15 per cent

• Trinidad Cement Ltd (TCL) yesterday morning announced an ex-factory increase of approximately 15 per cent in the price of the commodity. The price increase becomes effective on December 20, which is next week Monday. 
• In a message to its “valued clients,” TCL said: “We have been absorbing rising input costs for a long time and are now unable to continue to maintain our prices. “The main attributing cost factors are natural gas, imported spares and other raw materials that go into the manufacturing the highest quality cement brands”. 
• “We assure you that, in the interest of protecting the vulnerable construction sector, our price adjustment is only a marginal increase when compared to the escalating operating expenses with which we are faced.” 
• The cement company did not specify the quantum of increased costs or their contribution to the 15 per cent price increase. TCL, which is majority-owned by Mexico’s Cemex group, is at this time the monopoly supplier of cement to the local market.

(Source: Trinidad Express)