Again, prices of cement hit the roof tops

Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, CMAN has blamed the increasing rate of collapse of building in the country on the shylock landlords who instead of building the houses according to standard consider the commercial gains by having poor foundation.

CMAN said Cement Manufacturers are not to blame as their product quality met the industrial standard both in Nigeria and other parts of the world, adding that the buildings that collapsed were either started from initial bungalows being upgraded to multiple storey buildings, or built with poor quality iron roads and sundry material

Rising from a long technical meeting in Calabar, the CMAN further said that another reason why buildings were coming down, especially in Lagos and Abuja, was due the quality of molded blocks used; saying that the sands used were often sourced from the gutter or storm water sediments; as commercial block molders were rather driven by a mad rush to meet the number and not standard.

To assist in overcoming the buildings collapse, the Cement producers said they have promptly set up a committee to educate builders around the country on the right quantity of cement and sand components to be used during block molding and actual building.

Also, the CMAN members said the technical committee would come up with information on locations where to source for good quality sand for building purposes.

Meanwhile, all cement manufacturers and secondary packagers of the product in the country are to undergo mandatory in-house testing of product quality, to ensure common standard and quality.

The CMAN, in collaboration with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, which was part of the technical meeting, said a mandatory proficiency laboratory for all cement producers and secondary packagers would soon be set up to conform to the industrial standards, the NIS.

In the same vein, all producers of cement including importers of the product in the country, would label appropriate product content including raw materials used in producing the product; while all secondary packagers would liaise with SON and their suppliers for brand standardization.

This according to Didier Tresarrieu, managing director of United Cement Company of Nigeria, UniCem Limited, host of the inaugural CMAN “Cement Quality Forum,” would ensure that there is common standard as well as cement quality product harmonization across the country.

Director of SON, Joseph Odumodu, while praising the meeting, which would be a bi-annual event, to be rotated among CMAN members, said, it would help in maintaining quality of cement manufactured in the country; more so, as Nigeria would soon be a net exporter of the product on the West Africa sub-region.

With current national productive capacity hitting 15 million metric tons as against national demand of more than 18 million metric tons, most of the Cement manufacturers are presently expanding capacities expected to hit about 25 million metric tons in about three years.