By C. S. G.
The island of Lanzarote ran out of cement. The unusual shortage of this product caused inconvenience and problems in several construction companies on the island, although the situation has been normalized during Friday morning, according to the only company that supplies this product to the island, Cementos Especiales de las Islas Sociedad Anónima (CEISA). The difficulties in acquiring cement were recorded since Wednesday, according to some businessmen in the sector, although CEISA assures that it was only on Thursday afternoon and the first hours of this Friday when the island was left without any of that product, but they also admit that this has caused setbacks to several companies.
The reasons for the shortage were two, according to CEISA's commercial director, Claudio Piernavieja, to La Voz: the delays that the ship that transports the cement suffers repeatedly, and this week in a special way, to dock in the Port of Los Mármoles, due to its saturation, and a "peak" in demand that has been registered in the last ten days.
"It is true, there was a specific shortage, but I don't think it was enough to make a mess like some pretend, although surely we will have done a bad turn to more than one," said the manager.
The cement arrives in Lanzarote weekly from the factory that the company has in Arguineguín, south of Gran Canaria. Once here, it is stored in the deposits that CEISA has on this island, for its subsequent distribution among the builders. Each week a ship from that company arrives with almost its entire cargo, 5,200 tons, or two per week, with half a load each. This is enough to supply the average consumption on the island, which is about 850 tons per day. But in the last ten days, that consumption has shot up by 30 percent, since the current demand is 1,100 tons per day, according to Piernavieja.
The "Achilles heel"
"We have the production capacity to satisfy this increase, and also if we pride ourselves on something in this company, it is that our customers do not need to send us their forecasts in advance, but we believe that it is understandable that if we have an increase in demand of that magnitude, there is some specific and brief problem, when this is combined with another factor, such as the port", explained the commercial director of CEISA.
Precisely, the port of Los Mármoles is an "Achilles heel" for the supply of cement to the island, as it is also for other products. "The port is often saturated with ships moored or waiting to moor, and as is logical there is an order of priorities, since first place is given to passengers, then to perishable products, then to fuels..., and as cement is not essential, we are at the bottom of the queue. This sometimes represents delays of hours, and even a whole morning. Sometimes our ship even had to leave without being able to unload the cement in Los Mármoles", said Piernavieja.
In the specific case of this week, the ship had to wait this Friday more than four hours to be able to dock in Los Mármoles, according to CEISA. This meant that the total shortage of the previous afternoon extended to this morning, which aggravated the situation, because 80 percent of the demand is concentrated before noon.
Meanwhile, in the Association of Construction Entrepreneurs of Lanzarote, its manager, Macarena Aparicio, said that effectively "there was a small shortage of cement in recent days, although this did not cause our associates to formally convey their complaints to us." And she agreed with Piernavieja regarding the "problem that means that in Lanzarote we do not have a port in conditions and with an operating capacity according to the needs of the island".
