Trade and Industry Minister, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Tuesday warned that government would not allow cement distributors to use the market forces to exploit consumers.

The Minister was speaking at a meeting with officials of the Ghana Cement (GHACEM) Limited at his office in Accra to find ways of curbing recent arbitrary increases in the price of cement by distributors.

Dr. Apraku said reports reaching the Ministry indicated that distributors were retailing cement at prices ranging between 45,000 cedis to 50,000 cedis, and that this was exorbitant since GHACEM had only increased its ex-depot prices by 6.4 percent bringing a bag to 34,650 including VAT. He said the 6.4 percentage increase by GHACEM was due to the depreciation of the Cedi and the cost of transporting cement from its depot in Accra to Takoradi. "We have a responsibility to ensure that domestic trade is done properly and we would not condone such negative practices", he added.

Mr Bjarne Schmidt, Managing Director of GHACEM also explained that the company's 6.4 percent increase was due to the depreciation of the Cedi and the increased cost of transporting stock between the Accra and Takoradi depots.

GHACEM increased its ex-depot price by 6.4 percent on February 4, this year. The last increment was in September 2002.