Wherever you go today in South Africa you are sure to find some form of construction, either a house, a residential complex, a business building, roads or sport stadiums. There is construction going on everywhere.

Seeing so much construction taking place goes to show that the country is progressing well as this is a clear sign of a booming economy with so much infrastructual development happening. But one major drawback during this construction boom has been the shortage of cement in South Africa.

With all the construction currently taking place there has been a high demand for cement whilst the supply is not coping with this demand. An example will be an individual building a house : The house developers had set a date of having the house constructed by 30 July 2007 but until now the house is not yet complete and the developer will turn around and say, “There is just not enough cement to go around in order to finish building your house on time.” There is nothing the developer can do if the majority of the cement on the market is being used to build major projects such as stadiums for the 2010 World Cup and other national infrastructures such as the Gautrain. There clearly is a pecking order now in terms of who gets priority first to the cement.

Cement is not the only thing in short supply, other building materials are also in short supply with all the construction taking place. This is not a great time for one to start thinking about building a house as it may take a long time for the construction to be completed.

The Reserve Bank governor, Tito Mboweni, came out this week and said, “Sometimes I think there is too much construction happening. The consequences are that we have supply constraints.” The governor suggested that big constructions projects should have been spread over a large period of time.

The construction sector in South Africa is not only faced with materials shortages but also a shortage of skills in the industry. There just seems not to be enough skilled people to handle all the construction projects in South Africa and as a result the government and private sector have had to recruit skills from outside the country at a high cost.

So for now in South Africa, if you can supply cement and other major construction materials you will make money and if you have skills in the construction industry you will make money.

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