Bags of cement are stacked up high in Megenagna, one of the more famous retailing areas in Addis Abeba. But the closed warehouses in the photo betray the turbulence of a market where production is low, prices escalating, and the authorities are at a loss on how to address the challenge.
It is not an entirely bleak picture. Cement shortages have improved from their level half a year ago. Surprisingly, it has not dented waiting times at wholesalers and forced contractors to turn to retailers that source from the underground market and sell for over 500 Br a quintal, double the wholesale price.
...
AllAfrica Subscription Content
You must be an allAfrica.com subscriber for full access to certain content.
You have selected an article from the AllAfrica archive, which requires a subscription. You can subscribe by visiting our subscription page. Or for more information about becoming a subscriber, you can read our subscription and contribution overview.
For information about our premium subscription services:
You can also freely access - without a subscription - hundreds of today's top Africa stories and thousands of recent news articles from our home page »
Already a subscriber? Sign in for full access to article