Saturday, 1 November 2008, Kuching: Sarawak's sole cement manufacturer, CMS Cement Sdn Bhd, has been quick to reduce the selling price of Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) to its dealers effective today following a reduction in production costs.

CMS Cement announced it had dropped the selling price to dealers by RM5.00 per metric tonne (MT) effective 1 November 2008.

“CMS Cement has taken a lead role in adjusting the price of cement to in response to a nationwide call by the Government and industry associations to reduce prices of construction materials to overcome the present economic challenges”, said CMS Cement Executive Director, Haji Othman Abdul Rani .

A recent lowering of raw material costs has allowed CMS Cement to reduce overall production costs.

“As a socially responsible organisation, CMS Cement is committed to passing on any savings to our customers. With the reduction in price to dealers, we hope builders and developers will now pass on these savings to the public”, added Haji Othman Abdul Rani .

Announcement of the cement price reduction to dealers was made at the Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers' Association (SHEDA) 15 th Anniversary dinner held in Kuching tonight. Sarawak's Chief Minister was Guest-of-honour at the function which was attended by major contractors and property developers of Sarawak .

SHEDA members' annual usage of OPC constitutes some 24% of CMS Cement's total sales each year.

Established in 1974, CMS Cement currently has an annual capacity of 1.75 million MT at its two grinding plants in Kuching and Bintulu. CMS Cement acquired its own clinker supply in 2007, allowing it to become an integrated cement manufacturer to meet the demand of cement for the whole state of Sarawak .