For two weeks, it seemed like a dark world for the construction companies in the country because of the cement shortage crisis.

The production of cement by Pacific Cement Limited was put to a halt by the Acting Prime Minister, Attorney-General and Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.

This was on the 8th of this month as the company experienced machinery problems.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said Pacific Cement had stopped production on the 28th of May but failed to inform its stakeholders.

This has left Tengy Cement (Fiji) Limited to be the only supplier of cement in the market.

In an interview with Fiji Master Builders Association president Vijay Raghwan, the country had faced a similar issue six years ago and Pacific Cement had informed its stakeholders beforehand but failed to do so this year.

Pacific Cement provided close to 80 per cent of cement required in the country but after the Government’s intervention, Pacific Cement agreed to sell its clinker to Tengy Cement to allow Tengy to fully produce cement that can cater for the local demands.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said Pacific Cement is likely to recover by this August.

Pacific Cement had agreed to sell its clinker to Tengy for $147 per tonne.

Through this, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said 14,400 tonnes of cement will be produced per month.

Although it seemed like the skies were beginning to clear up for worried cement consumers, Tengy was caught by surprise on Wednesday after an electrical glitch that occurred.

Tengy Cement Limited general manager Hongyang Lee confirmed yesterday that the glitch had been fixed at 6pm on Friday and production began at 7pm.

Electrical engineers had been working around the clock since Wednesday night to get the factory back into operation.

Production of cement had begun as soon as the machine started working, said Mr Lee.

An eyewitness at the site who does not wish to be named, said the truck drivers who lined up at the site since Monday had left to go back to their homes yesterday and will return tomorrow to pick their load.

“The drivers had left their trucks parked here so they can get their share of cement as soon as distribution starts,” he said.

Tengy will start its full supply tommorow.

It would be able to produce 1325 tonnes of cement by then.

Meanwhile, some bulks of standard concrete was distributed yesterday afternoon.

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