No Local Supplier Imports Cement
By Rosli Abidin Yahya

Bandar Seri Begawan - Local suppliers and contractors thanked the government for allowing the importation of cement from overseas to alleviate the vital building material shortage that they have been experiencing of late.

However, they told the Bulletin yesterday that no local supplier is currently importing cement from outside.

This is because the quality allowed to be imported is too high and is also not easily obtainable.

They added that it was very hard to find manufacturers who could supply them with a cement grade of 62.5.

"Most cement manufacturers from cement producing countries only produce cement grade of 42.5, which is the normal quality adopted by many countries.

"However, if the grade can be lowered to 52.5 then we can still find cement manufacturers who produce that quality," they said.

"We are pleading for the grade to be lowered so we can import cement easily."

Local contractors feel the allowable grade of 62.5 is too high as well as unnecessary for this country, which does not construct high rise buildings like Singapore, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, China and Hong Kong.

They said even in countries with high rise buildings, cement grade 53 or 52.5 is the accepted standard.

According to several contractors, lower grade cement was used on many buildings prior to the imposition of the 62.5 grade.

"We contractors always thought that the grade and quality of concrete - which is the end product - is more important, and not the high grade of cement.

"Even if you have the highest grade of cement, but the mixture is wrong, the end product will be porous and cracks on the concrete could appear in the long run," they said.

A concrete structure is built so as to last and give maintenance-free service for years and decades.

Accordingly, apart from strength, long-term behaviour under service conditions and environmental effects also become important considerations for performance, they added.

"The major prescription for making durable concrete is to achieve and ensure good quality control in the production of concrete during construction, which is having the right mixture of cement, sand, stone and water," they said.

In general, the comprehensive strength of concrete for a given proportion increases with the standard mortar strength of cement.

However, they said even though the strength of cement is regarded as the main parameter for judging its performance, such added strength will be wasted as high grade cement is only needed for high-rise buildings.

"By reducing the grade of cement in accordance to our requirements, we will be able to lower the construction cost brought about by cheaper building materials such as cement," they said.

"The lower cost of construction will induce more demand for construction and enable more people to own houses as a result of the lower cost of building construction," they said. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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