The Group Executive Director,
Devakumar, while fielding questions yesterday on the 'Morning Show' a breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS Channels, the broadcast arm of
He added that the company sells cement at a factory price of N2, 450 per bag, making the product cheaper in
Devakumar said the company, in 2015, had reduced the price of its cement by 40 per cent, due to market forces.
He stated that when the price was reduced in 2015, some people alleged that
He said: "For any commodity, prices may be different for different players. For any player, they have the liberty to fix any price. In
"So, ultimately, I had to defend it in the media and we began to roll back our price gradually.
"This was the reaction in the market then. Coming to our prices today, we are selling our cement at N2, 450 at the factory from Obajana, and Gboko is the same. The price at Ibeshe is about N2, 510, which is N60 more because the cost of production at Ibeshe is high; the limestone is high in moisture and the drying up process takes additional power and energy.
"If you take today's parallel market price of N485 per tonne, the price comes to
According to him, despite the rise in the prices of key ingredients used in the construction sector, the company has kept its price firm.
He said: "The construction sector does not use only cement; the price of sand has moved from N3, 000 to N4, 500 which is a key ingredient in construction. The price of gravel has also gone up by 120 per cent from N1, 900 to 4,200 in the last 15 months and we have kept our prices firm. The price of tiles has gone up by 100 per cent; and 50 per cent.
"So, the prices of all these ingredients have gone up substantially whereas the price of cement, we are selling at the same price that we are selling in 2019; and we have not increased the price by one kobo. In naira terms, we have not changed the price in 15 months and in dollar term, the prices have gone down very substantially."
Asked on the purported report that the organisation exported cement to
Also in a separate interview yesterday, Devakumar told journalists in
He said the clarification was made in view of recent insinuations that the company was selling cement in
Devakumar stated that while a bag of cement sells for an equivalent of
He said that though the company had direct control over its ex-factory prices, it could not control the retail price in the market.
He added that it is important to distinguish Dangote's ex-factory prices from retailers' prices.
He condemned what he described as intentional misinformation or demarketing, allegedly sponsored by some individuals, that Dangote sells its cement at higher prices in
He described the allegation as false, misleading, and unfounded.
Presenting copies of invoices from
He added that while Dangote cement has a 60 per cent share of the market, other companies have the remaining 40 per cent.
He said
He explained: "Demand for cement has risen globally as a fallout of the COVID-19 crisis.
"Over the past 15 months, our production costs have gone up significantly. About 50 per cent of our costs are linked to the dollar. So, the cost of critical components like gas, gypsum, bags and spare parts has increased significantly due to devaluation of the naira and VAT increase.
"Despite this, DCP has not increased ex-factory prices since
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