Trinidad Cement has announced that a temporary surcharge imposed on bagged cement has been removed and that cement prices are expected to go down in the coming weeks.

Speaking to local press, the company General Manager Satnarine Bachew said a 42.5 kg bag of cement had increased by $13 as the company was forced to raise prices two weeks after workers began strike action on 27 February.

He stated in a release on July 31 that the additional charge was driven by the higher cost of satisfying the local cement demand due to  extenuating  circumstances created by the strike (among these, the importation of cement and clinker, an intermediate product in the manufacture of cement) from other TCL Group operations in Barbados and Jamaica, administrative and other logistical challenges. 

Bachew said cement prices are expect to revert to “pre-strike prices”. He added that the company’s production was back to running at full capacity, eliminating the need for imported cement and clinker.