A few large, mainly infrastructural projects, like the extension of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, continue apace.

Some HDC housing projects, previously stalled by faulty work, have also continued, while a few private developments (like One Woodbrook Place) are trying to complete unfinished units.

But lower prices for construction materials like steel, aggregate, cement and blocks have failed to spur a building boom at what might seem the right time. Loans for building or buying new properties are being offered at their lowest rates in years, mostly below seven per cent.

Still, prospective home owners and housing developers are not rushing to capitalise on what might seem as a golden opportunity.

A major hardware dealer told the Business Express that while people were still buying, he was seeing few signs of an expansion of home construction. ’Most people, it seems, are seizing the opportunity to do maintenance works,’ he said. ’What we are seeing is people using their money to outfit new houses, or upgrade existing ones, with high-quality, hence more costly features, like toilet sets, tiles, doors and windows. But generally, sales are sluggish.’

Of the major materials used in construction, the one that has been hit by rising prices amidst lower demand is steel.

One downstream steel products manufacturer said the price of rebars, produced by Centrin locally, but also imported from Cuba, has increased from around US$655 a tonne in March to $755 for May deliveries.

The downstream manufacturers make products like chainlink fabric, barbed wire, welded mesh, tying steel, roofing sheets and reinforced hollow sections (RHS). Centrin, the lone mid-stream steel manufacturer since the closure of Caribbean Steel Mill last year, makes a wide range of products-rounds, rebars, flats, angles and squares made in various grades, from mild steel to high tensile steel and stainless steel.

Centrin is owned by Bhagwansingh’s Hardware, which also owns the biggest chain of hardware stores in the country.

One downstream manufacturer who purchases his raw materials from Centrin, said, ’We have not raised our product prices. Sales have been slow for some time.

A local hardware dealer said several large stores actually imported steel from abroad cheaper than it was available here.

’But the moment we put these products on sale, the bigger dealers undercut us, even if they stand to lose. But you know what? We don’t sell only steel, and once we establish a good reputation our loyal customers come to us to buy all their construction requirements.’

The hardware owners faced a similar situation from concrete and clay block manufacturers during the building boom between 2007 and 2009.

’We had to pay up front, sometimes up to two months, for clay and concrete blocks. Our customers went through torture. Then one manufacturer insisted we buy concrete blocks from his establishment in order to get the more popular clay blocks.’

He said when the slowdown in construction hit home in early 2009, the manufacturers were forced to hold ’fire sales’ to clear their overstocked yards. And with the drought spiking sales of plastic water tanks, the dealers faced similar, unexplained price hikes.

’Suddenly, the price of water tanks increased. They claimed the price of resin (raw material used to make plastic) rose twice between January and February. The largest manufacturer is also selling tanks to consumers directly from his factory. I expect when the rains come, while they will have made substantial profits by then, they would revert to begging us to buy from them.’

All those involved in the construction sector, from hardware dealers to building contractors, agree that now is the right time for those who intend to build houses to do so, in spite of increased prices for some critical materials, mainly steel.

’Financing for house-construction or purchasing has never been better, what with banks competing for business. Skilled labour, which was in short supply during the boom, and also expensive, is now widely available at lower prices. Most construction materials have remained stable while some prices have actually dropped from 2008 levels,’ a dealer said last week.

Steel prices, however, have risen globally over the past six months, triggered not because of increased demand (except in China, Brazil and few Far East countries). The driver has been a contentious new pricing mechanism implemented by the world’s biggest iron ore mining giants, Australia’s Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, and Brazil’s Vale SA. Together, the three control 70 per cent of the US$88 billion trade in iron ore.

The new pricing mechanism has seen the miners impose quarterly (three-month) contract prices instead of traditional one-year contracts. Already, Vale has reportedly struck a deal with Japan’s Nippon Steel, to sell ore at US$110 a tonne between April-June, up from US$60 a tonne.

As the global giants wrestle over iron ore and steel prices at a time when global demand is falling, hardware dealers, local contractors and independent builders are hoping the post-elections period will trigger some spark in the construction sector.

’Unemployment numbers have climbed mainly because of a slowdown in this sector,’ one contractor said. ’Between us and the manufacturing sector, we are the biggest employers of skilled and unskilled labour outside of Government. It is in the country’s interest, whatever Government assumes office on May 25, to have these two sectors up and running.’

The PNM, which faced strong criticisms over its mega-projects splurge, has promised to continue with projects left unfinished or yet to start when the election bell rang. Among these are five new hospitals, a number of schools and other public buildings, and the rapid rail project.

The UNC-COP-led People’s Partnership has spoken out against some projects, mainly the Alutrint smelter, the Port of Claxton Bay, and more Government-funded high-rise office buildings.

One contractor said if the PNM returns to office and continues to give these major projects to Chinese firms, local contractors and steel manufacturers have nothing to gain.

’The Chinese firms come with almost all their materials, especially steel. They come with their own labour, too. The only local materials they use are aggregate and cement.’