ALNG impasse hits cement sales

THE MONTH-long impasse at Atlantic LNG has affected companies providing construction material to the Train IV construction project and the 56-inch cross-country pipeline project. General manager of Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) Arun Goyal told Newsday that Atlantic LNG was one of TCL’s biggest customers in the oil industry, providing roughly 4,000 to 5,000 tonnes of cement a month to Atlantic LNG and their contractors. “While the Atlantic LNG impasse has not affected us in a major way, it still has an impact on our sales of cement,” Goyal said, adding that TCL sold cement to companies such as Readymix who in turn sell to Atlantic LNG and their contractors.

Goyal said the Atlantic LNG impasse came at a time when the construction sector is set to take off with Government’s aggressive low-cost housing programme and private companies’ construction plans. Goyal assured, however, that TCL had no immediate plans to increase the wholesale price of cement although there have been recent hikes in prices of other building materials, specifically lumber, PVC fittings, steel and steel-related products such as nails and BRC. He said ASTM Type 1 Portland cement, the company’s flagship product continues to sell at the ex-factory price of $28.95 per 42.5 kg bag in Trinidad and $33.20 per 42.5 kg in Tobago. The TCL boss said his company produced cement Types 1, 2, 5, oil-well class G (only for drilling companies) and Type 3. The existing price structure for these cement types, will also remain constant, Goyal said.

He explained that 99 percent of TT cement consumers purchase the Type 1 Portland cement, while the other four cement types were mainly for use in the oil industry and other specialised industries, with Type 2 cement being used solely for oil rig construction. “We are building our hope on working in partnership with government who as you know have embarked on an aggressive house construction drive. Our expectation was that after Carnival, there would be a surge in the construction industry, but this has not materialised as yet,” Goyal said. He said he was still optimistic that this would be a bumper year for TCL. “The economic outlook for TCL for this year is pretty good and I remain confident.” In fact he said TCL production was currently running flat out at 100 percent and the company was moving ahead to upgrade its plant to the tune of $100 million to improve production capacity and that Phase 1 of the improvement work should be completed around this time next year.