Don’t blame us for higher prices

HARDWARE DEALERS claim they are being wrongly accused and chastised by customers about increasing prices being imposed by Caribbean Ispat Limited.

President of the Hardware Dealers Co-operative Society Euric Bhagwansingh said dealers had no control over prices which have increased four times in the last 12 months. He said downstream producers were paying more than 20 percent above average world prices. Bhagwansingh said this at a press conference hosted by the Downstream Steel and Wire Rods Association, and the Hardware Dealers Co-Operative Society, at the Normandie Hotel. Bindra Maharaj, a member of the Hardware Dealers Society, emphasised that the dealers were the ones “taking the brunt at the end of the retail trade” and they wanted the public to know the “problem comes from the manufacturers.”

Maharaj said when the prices of basic building products are increased, a spiral effect is created, as other products made out of steel rods would also be subject to a price increase. He warned that government’s bid to build 1,000 housing units in one year, would soon be in trouble as labour costs could not be lowered and “labour and material go hand in hand”. He said the cost of the units, which had already been calculated, would now increase because of the increase in building material. Maharaj appealed to Trade Minister Ken Valley to revisit the monopolies commission since consumers had begun “cutting back on the purchasing” of materials prices. Director of TrinRico Ramdath Ramsubir accused Ispat of increasing their prices on a “whim and fancy with as little as two days notice” and the dealers were subjected to fluctuating pricing mechanisms.

Ramsubir said dealers were being charged the same prices as if they were importing steel which is unfair because local dealers collected their steel at the factory. He revealed that local dealers were required to pay shipping,  handling, port charges and insurance costs and “these charges are built into the burdensome figures applied to the downstream manufacturers”. There is no competition locally, declared Ramsubir, stating that it was “Trinidad against the rest of the world. “As a group we are competing against the rest of the world, and we want a level playing field so that we can compete with the rest of the world,” he said. “A dwelling house costing about $300,000 in January, will now cost about $15,000 more, with the increase in prices over the last couple months,” Ramsubir said. “There is a risk of job losses as the downstream steel industry employed over 3,000 people directly and created indirect employment for others.”