Dangote Cement Plc has dismissed claims by some manufacturers\u00a0 of the
\nCement that the recent upward review of the quality standard by the
\nStandard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) will lead to price increase<\/p>\n
The management of Dangote Cement allayed the fears of the consumers that
\nthe upgrade of cement quality and the new classification of grades have
\nnothing to do with the price.<\/p>\n
Group Managing Director of Dangote Cement, Devakumar Edwin said in Lagos
\nat the weekend that those making such claims were doing so to blackmail
\nthe regulatory authorities into backing down on the new quality standard.<\/p>\n
He explained in an interview with journalists that for any patriotic
\nmanufacturer with consumer interest at heart, there is no relationship
\nbetween the new standard review and the Price of the product except for
\nprofiteering.<\/p>\n
To buttress his point, Edwin noted that his company started producing 42.5
\ngrade for the past eight years at its Obajana plant and the Ibese plant
\nfor about three years at the same with price of the lower grade of 32.5
\nproduced by some other competitors.<\/p>\n
According to him, the switching over to a higher quality cement shouldn’t
\nbe a difficult process that will necessitate increase in price of the
\nproduct.<\/p>\n
The Dangote Cement boss added that his company has even gone ahead to be
\nproducing 52.5 grade of cement and that it would be uncharitable for
\nanyone to claim that the new standard would lead to price hike for the
\nproduct.<\/p>\n
Edwin then pledged that much as his company would continue to cooperate
\nwith government and authorities in the regulation of the cement industry,
\nit would ensure the price is not hijacked by profiteers.<\/p>\n
It would be recalled that SON in the wake of the building collapses across
\nthe country and the attendant controversies on the quality of cement being
\nproduced in the country summoned the meeting of a stakeholders in the
\nbuilding and construction industry.<\/p>\n
The meeting undertook a review of standard of quality of cement and came
\nout with a classification of cement types and their appropriate uses as a
\nmeans of stemming the suspected misapplication of the product which has
\ncontributed to the building collapse menace.<\/p>\n
SON in the new classification exercise warned members of the public to
\nadhere strictly to the stipulated application of cement types and save the
\nnation the embarrassment of incessant structure failures.<\/p>\n
In the fresh review of standard, the Organisation restricted the use of
\nthe 32.5 grade strength to plastering of structures only while 42.5 grade
\nis recommended for the construction of buildings, beams, load bearing
\ncolumns, pillars, block moulding and other structures and the 52.5
\nrecommended for the construction bigger projects like bridges, flyovers,
\nand high rise buildings.<\/p>\n
Edwin said the decision by Dangote Cement to embark on the high quality
\ngrade was to help Nigeria stem the tide of collapse building and commended
\nSON for the bold move pointing out that Dangote was ready to support the
\nregulatory body in the onerous task of ridding the nation of structure
\nfailures.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cAfter 28 days, the 32.5 grade gives a strength of 32.5MPA,
\nwhereas the 42.5 grade gives a curing of 42.5MPA i.e 30 per cent higher in
\nstrength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Edwin said that in spite of the high quality grade of Dangote Cement,
\nit has not increased its price for the product ans would not.<\/p>\n
\u201cChina, the Number one producer of cement in the world is phasing out the
\nentire 32.5 grade by July. India, the second largest producer of cement
\nphased out 32.5 grade cement 12 years back,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The Dangote Cement GMD had at a public hearing conducted by the House of
\nRepresentatives on Cement Quality in Abuja questioned why other
\nmanufacturers will be producing high grade cement in their Indian
\nfactories while producing low grade cement in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Edwin said before 2004 Nigerian businessmen used to produce and import the
\nhigh grade cement, 42.5MPA, wondering why the sudden jettisoning of the
\nhigh quality cement for 32.5 lower grade.<\/p>\n
According to him, the phenomenon of collapse building increased
\nastronomically as from 2004 when other manufacturers downgraded their
\nquality to 32.5MPA. It is estimated that from 1974 to 2010, collapse
\nbuilding had claimed 297 lives.<\/p>\n
The SON had recently issued a directive that 52.5R be used for bridges,
\n42.5R should be used for casting of columns, beams, slabs and making
\nblocks, while the low grade 32.5MPA was restricted to plastering.<\/p>\n
Speaking also at the Public Hearing, Director General of SON Joseph Ikem
\nOdumodu said the restriction placed on the use of low grade cement is
\nimportant to mitigate the problem of collapse building in the country.<\/p>\n
Contributing, President of the Cement Manufacturers Association of
\nNigerian (CMAN) Engr Joseph Makoju, said the 42.5 grade is superior cement
\nover 32.5 and that Nigeria used to produce and import 42.5 before the
\ncoming of 32.5MPA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dangote Cement Plc has dismissed claims by some manufacturers\u00a0 of the Cement that the recent upward review of the quality standard by the Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) will lead…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n