Price complaints spark cement investigation

A specialist firm is to be brought in to investigate the cement market following growing complaints about material shortages, high prices and a lack of competition among suppliers.

The British Aggregates Association (BAA) has enlisted Cartel Damage Claims (CDC), the cartel buster which gathered data in Germany that lead to the prosecution of Cemex, Lafarge and Dykerhoff. It is currently seeking £137m compensation on behalf of the 29 German companies it represented.

Following the prosecution, the price of delivered cement in Germany is now half that being paid by independents in the UK. BAA says that many of its members have complained of difficulty obtaining cement and, when it is available, of rocketing prices.

“Lots of quarrying companies who buy cement are having extreme difficulty getting hold of it,” Richard Bird, executive officer at BAA told CJ. “Prices are going through the roof and those attempting to bring in cement from outside the UK haven’t been able to for a host of reasons. This makes us suspicious.”

Of the UK’s five major quarrying companies (Buxton Lime Industries, Castle Cement, Cemex, Lafarge and Hanson) only Hanson does not have access to in-house Ordinary Portland Cement, although it has now acquired Civil and Marine, which produces cement substitutes. CDC is to investigate whether the remaining four manufacturers are giving preferential treatment to their own quarrying interests at the expense of independents.

“We are increasingly hearing that cement prices are being inflated if you are not an in-house arm of one of the big manufacturers,” continued Bird. “We must investigate this fully as there are currently many independent quarrying companies feeling extremely vulnerable.”

“This is not just happening in the UK, it’s a global problem. Throughout Europe there are very few cement companies not owned by the big few.”