09:45 PM
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
I wrote – Safaa Arnaout:
The prices of building materials have increased significantly during the current few days, reaching 20%, and these increases represent great challenges for the local real estate market.
Masrawy monitors the rates of increases and the current prices of building inputs in factories and their prices for the consumer.
Ahmed Al-Zaini, head of the Building Materials Division at the Chamber of Commerce, said that the building materials market is witnessing varying prices. The factory price and the consumer price range from 4,000 to 5,000 pounds, which is a large percentage, and for the first time in history, iron prices have risen at these rates.
Al-Zaini attributed the significant increase in the prices of building materials to the lack of supply, the liberalization of the exchange rate, and the inability to import from abroad due to the lack of hard currency, explaining that the price of a ton of iron in the factory was 21,450 pounds, while the average price of iron for the consumer reached 26,000 pounds per ton.
Al-Zaini stressed that iron prices have increased by 20% since the beginning of this December, and it is expected that this percentage will lead to an increase in the price of the real estate product by 10% during the current month, calling on the regulatory authorities to intervene, praising the cabinet meeting yesterday, where Dr. Mustafa Madbouly stressed the campaigns. Rationalization to control prices in the markets, which have become exaggerated by traders.
Regarding cement prices, Al-Zaini said that its prices ranged from 1375 to 1600 at the factory, while the price of a ton of cement for the consumer reached between 1700 and 1850 pounds, according to the distance of transportation from the factory.
The price of cement constitutes 5% of the total cost of projects
Ahmed Shereen, head of the Cement Division and member of the Board of Directors of the Building Materials Industries Chamber of the Federation of Egyptian Industries, said that cement prices witnessed a remarkable increase during the current year, ranging from 10 to 15%, as the price of a ton of cement reached 1,600 and 1,700 thousand pounds, compared to the beginning of this year. The price of a ton of cement was 1450 pounds.
He added to “Masrawy” that the imported inputs that are used in the cement industry constitute regarding 70%, and therefore cement as a product is naturally affected by the rise in the value of the hard currency, as it is linked to the movement of opening credits in banks.
He pointed out that the high price of cement will very weakly affect the price of the real estate product, as it constitutes regarding 5% of the total cost of any project, and therefore cement is one of the least affecting materials in the cost of buildings.
He explained that Egypt consumed regarding 52 million tons of cement in all its projects during the current year 2022, and it is expected that the total volume of cement product exports abroad by the end of the year will reach 10 million tons.