Due to the rising cost and shortage of cement in the early period of the year,some small construction businesses halted their operations, according to construction community. Currently, only urgently needed private homes and contract building in favourable location with potential high demand are in operation.
3,000 tonns of imported cement arrived at Shwepyithar Muttama port, Yangon on February 21 and began to distributed in the market. Although the imported cement is available, the prices remain high, U Myo Myint, a veteran construction contractor said. Some construction contractors predict that the construction works will likely to resume when the the cement price become stable. Formerly, domestically used steel bar yearly supply was 2 million tonns and now decreased by 40 percent, said a steel bar trader.
The price of imported construction steel bar is Ks. 3 million for per tonn of HRB 500 and Ks.2.5 million for per tonn of HRB 400. The current price of local made steel bar is Ks. 3 million per tonn. The price of cement was formerly more than Ks.10,000 per bag but now it is between Ks. 26,000 and round about Ks. 27,000 and the prices of brick, sand, pebble and construction material still remain high.
