THE CONTRACTORS’ association has accused brick factories of using their market monopoly to allow one their number to sell off its "useless" stock.
The Contractors’ Association, the brick-makers and the Ministry of Commerce’s Consumer Protection service are holding a meeting today in an attempt to resolve the dispute, but the factory under fire denies the accusations.
Contractors’ Association director Angelos Constantinou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday several brick factories had over the last 10 days repeatedly claimed they did not have any stock to provide contractors, and would not have for another couple of weeks because they were undergoing maintenance, directing them every time to one specific brick factory.
"How can all factories be closed, undergoing maintenance at the same time? Many builders have complained that they could not get bricks anywhere but from a single factory, which supplied them with absolutely useless bricks," he said.
The association will decide what steps to take after today’s meeting.
Constantinou claimed that the factories’ "dirty tricks" were a usual phenomenon in the summer period, but also at other times of the year.
He sent a letter to the Commerce Ministry’s Department of Consumer Protection on June 7, outlining the situation to the department’s director, George Mitides.
Mitides told the Mail yesterday that his department was investigating the matter, but was finding it difficult to make progress because the contractors’ accusations were vague, and failed to name factories accused of refusing to supply buyers with bricks.
The department had asked contractors to be more specific, he said.
"We also got some phone calls from brick shop owners who complained about not being able to get bricks easily," Mitides said.
The answer to all these questions could be that during the summer period a lot of factories did indeed close down for maintenance, he said.
"But if our investigation concludes that there has been a planned action to protect the interests of a specific company by not offering services, brick factory owners will have to face the consequences of braking the law."
But the manager of the factory accused by the contractors told the Cyprus Mail that there was no plan whatsoever to manipulate the market, and denied Constantinou’s claims that most brick factories were closed.
"The reason why some factories refuse to provide builders with bricks is because many of them have not been paying for material those factories supplied them with in the past," said the manager.
"We follow the same tactic. When we are happy with our clients, we continue to serve them. When we are not, we stop doing business with them."
There was no hidden agenda, he said, and if there had been, prices would have gone up.
"How can they accuse us of monopolising the market when we are selling material as cheap as we were selling it 10 years ago?"
And the manager brushed aside the claims that his factory’s bricks were useless: "It’s their right to say anything they want," he said.
