(Yicai Global) Dec. 12 -- Impacted by air pollution regulatory policies and a worsening shortage of raw materials, members of the Wuhan Concrete Association reacted yesterday, spontaneously starting an overall work stoppage at 8:00 a.m., Yicai Global has learned.

The association issued a crisis report on Dec. 4, in which it petitioned the government to intervene in the soaring prices of cement and other concrete ingredients, whose costs have risen by USD22.73 to 30.30 (CNY150 to 200) per ton, with the price of yellow sand up by CNY30, and that of gravel up CNY10 per ton.

The rise in raw material costs has caused intense fluxes in the price of premixed concrete, and conflicts between supply and demand are growing  in consequence in a situation in which greedy suppliers price themselves out of the market.

Upstream cement producers and suppliers had to swallow several rounds of price rises last month alone. Ensuring normal supplies is impossible since the tempo of increases deprives premixed concrete companies of time for normal price discussions with contractors. Premixed concrete enterprises have therefore suspended their production, while some construction projects have also been shelved. The association is urging the government to attend to this problem and intervene in the premixed concrete materials market, especially in the chaotically soaring price of cement, it said.