Reply #11: anecdotal reports

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The limited number of barges and shipping lines to bring the imported cement to US shores is adding to the problem. The demand for rebuilding in Iraq, and building projects from Hong Kong to Singapore, have significantly diverted supply ships to those countries. The supplies that are making it to US ports have been bottlenecked by transportation woes, observers say.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0817/p03s02-usec.htm



Demand for KingdomSaudi's Cement to Increase
Arab News - 16/08/2003

DAMMAM, 16 August 2003 — The reconstruction of Iraq has made cement the most sought-after construction commodity there, and contractors are turning to Saudi Arabia to meet their requirements. According to cement industry sources, there have been several queries from contractors as well as middlemen, and currently the initial requirement in Iraq is about 20 million tons, which is equal to the combined cement production of all the eight factories in the Kingdom

>>>The reconstruction in Iraq provides a challenge to the cement industry in the GCC. He said it was unlikely that Saudi Arabia would be able to sell cement for Iraqi reconstruction in the immediate future. But he did not rule out future sales. "The reconstruction in Iraq is a long drawn-out process, and demand for cement is going to persist for a long time. The Saudi cement factories will be able to meet the Iraqi demand once they expanded their production capacity," he added.

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?storyid=26392


We got the Iraqi cement factory running. We wanted to spend $23 million


U.S. Army engineers who came to survey the damage proposed rebuilding the plant into a shining showcase for the best in modern technology. They suggested buying a fleet of earth-moving equipment and importing machinery from Europe, estimating it would take $23 million and up to a year to complete the job.

The Iraqis had more modest ambitions — they just wanted to get the factory running again, even at minimal capacity. With the help of $10,000 from the U.S. military, and $240,000 left over in factory bank accounts, they used scrap electronics, tore up one production line to get parts for the other, and fixed the plant in three months. It was not the state-of-the-art facility that the Americans envisioned, but it got the job done.

The difference between the “American way” and the “Iraqi way” of building things is at the heart of an ongoing debate about how much reconstruction money is really needed and how it should be doled out. As Congress debated $18 billion to rebuild Iraq, the cement factory became a symbol of the tension between the two approaches.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3403655