Cement Shortage Acute Here

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 73, 26 July 1948, Page 5

Cement Shortage Acute Here

USEES SAY NO RELIEF IN SIGHT A quick survey of the cement situation in the Whakatane district shows that the situation has deteriorated to one of the worst shortages in the town for many years. Concrete manufacturers, farmers, builders and other firms are in dire need of ■ cement to carry out urgent works. There appears to be no sign of large scale relief from the situation in view. i One manufacturing firm has now been without a sufficient supply of cement for the past fortnight and another has had to reduce production to a minimum. A number of farmers have dairy inspector’s orders that a certain amount of concreting has to be done before the sheds can be used for the coming season. They are without the wherewithal to do the job. The distributing firms in the town have orders standing which in some cases run up to the hundred ton mark. One firm stated that they, as order receiving agents, had orders mounting to over a hundred tons which they had no hope of filling, even in part, for at least two months. A manufacturing firm which can on an average use 10 tons of cement a week has had none for the past two weeks and has orders for number's of finished articles it has no hope of producing. This is the worst position that firm has been in for years.. They have always just managed to scrape through with available stocks, but have had none since the end of June and have for the past fortnight been “twiddling their thumbs.” Another company has six\ bags to last until the next shipment, and with one man short and two away on sick leave they are unable to find enough to do. They use normally 17 bags a day.-

The He.rekino, a cement boat, according to one manufacturer in the town, has been for the past three weeks lying at Auckland unable to unload and if she should be unloaded by now it would probably be too late to catch the boat down this way. This boat is capable of carrying 270 tons each trip and she can make three trips a week, which represents a considerable loss to cement users for the three weeks she has been held up. ,