Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Concrete Block Levy: Discussion
Mr. Frank Kelly:
The process from a contracting point of view is we tender a contract and get market level prices for the materials or components of the project. If it is a Government project, the tender is generally valid for 180 days and can be up to 360. That is effectively the price we will get paid for the materials, provided the contract proceeds in that period. There is not the ability to hedge concrete because concrete cannot be put in a warehouse. It is batched on the day and dispatched to site. We have incurred from September 2021 into early 2022 two massive increases due to the energy cost of cement production. There is massive inflation on the product and we are due an additional increase. Unfortunately, it is not within the industry's gift to hedge on concrete prices.
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