The prices of steel and cement, except the two state-owned brands, have dipped by 12 and 10 percent respectively in the market, as international price dipped and construction sector continued to shrink in the new fiscal year.
Bricks manufacturers, however, have raised the price by Rs 500 per 1000 pieces, citing adverse impact of the season on productions.
People building new houses would also need to pay as much as Rs 15 more for a cubic feet of sand and aggregates, as suppliers citing new traffic rules deliver less sand and aggregates, but are charging prices as much as before.
"As cement and steel occupies some 29 percent weight each in total construction cost, people buying construction materials now will find their cost go down by around 6 percent," said Roshan Dahal, a contractor and also the former president of Nepal Construction Materials Dealers´ Association (NCMDA).
Movement of prices in the market shows that the prices of Indian as well as local cement, except the products of the state-owned Udaypur and Hetauda Cement factory (HCF), stand in a range of Rs 540 to Rs 550 per sack of 50 kilograms. In mid-July, cement was priced at around Rs 600 per sack.
Prices of Gaida and Hetauda -- the two popular brands of Udaypur Cement Factory and HCF -- have remained unchanged over the period. Gaida and Hetauda brands of cement are priced Rs 708 and Rs 754 per sack respectively, said Gopal Ghimire, chief of Valley Sales Management of National Trading Limited.
Likewise, the prices of steel have dipped in the range of Rs 61 to Rs 62 per kg, inclusive of value added tax (VAT). In mid-July, steel was priced around Rs 70 per kg.
Steel distributors attributed the drop in prices to recent decline in the prices of steel in the international market. "Apart from international reasons, the demand for steel has slipped so sharply that authorized distributors are selling it at prices much lower than the official prices the companies have set," Dahal said.
The price of bricks has gone up to Rs 9,000 per 1,000 pieces, which is about 5 percent higher than the prices set about one and a half months ago. The manufacturers tagged the rise in prices to the monsoon, which has affected productions.
Officials of NCMDA informed myrepublica.com that the prices of locally manufactured bricks would have gone up much sharply had the supply from Tarai not flooded the market.
Distributors said that a large number of contractors are currently recommending people to use bricks from Tarai even though it is expensive because they are bigger in size and effectively cuts cost, compared to the use of bricks manufactured in the Kathmandu Valley.
According to contractors, bricks from Tarai are about 1 inch larger in width and height than those manufactured in the Valley.
The prices of sand and aggregates have remained unchanged at Rs 17,000 per tipper.
However, because of the new traffic rules, which have forced transporters to lower their brims, a tipper now accommodates just 350 cubic feet of sand, whereas in the past it used to deliver 510 cubic feet of sand. This has increased the cost of sand to Rs 48 per cubic feet from about Rs 33 of the past.
Because of short supply, the price of aggregates too has jumped to around Rs 50 per cubic feet from Rs 40 per cubic feet over the last one and a half months, said NCMDA officials.
