10 parts sand, 4 parts freight
At the end of September, the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project, the section adjacent to Rach Chiec River (Long Truong Ward, Thu Duc City) was under construction but there was a serious shortage of sand.
Ho Chi Minh City's Ring Road 3 section through Thu Duc City is affected due to lack of sand.
Mr. H, an engineer supervising a bid, shared: "For more than half a year now, the contractor has been struggling to make up for lost production while waiting for sand, causing the overall progress to decline significantly.
In early September, the source of imported sand from Cambodia became abundant again, but the transportation cost increased again.
Instead of transporting by dump truck to the foot of the construction site as before, the contractor was forced to come up with a plan to use a pump ferry to pull the pipeline along the construction site to fill the foundation.
Mr. T, director of a company with nearly 20 years of experience supplying sand and stone in Ho Chi Minh City, said that the source of sand for leveling roads in the past was mainly taken from domestic mines near Ho Chi Minh City.
When these mines were closed, suppliers like his had to buy sand through import companies from Cambodia to Vinh Xuong border gate (An Giang). The long route with many steps and procedures made up the transportation cost, leading to a situation of "10 parts sand, 4 parts freight".
Sand price increase
To clarify the truth, PV contacted HM Company, one of 16 enterprises importing Cambodian sand to distribute to domestic trading enterprises. The company's staff said that the type of sand commonly used in traffic works is currently priced at barges ranging from 170,000 - 180,000 VND/m3.
"Price is on the spot, deposit 30%, payment for each trip. You will arrange the transportation from An Giang to Ho Chi Minh City yourself," this person said.
An employee of DL Company, another sand importer, also quoted a similar price and added: "Previously, barges of 1,000m3 or more were charged 65,000 VND/m3 for processing from An Giang to Ho Chi Minh City. Now the price has increased to 82,000 VND/m3. Each trip costs more than 80,000,000 VND for transportation," this person said.
In Ho Chi Minh City, when adding the cost of scraping sand from the barge to the yard, scooping it from the yard onto a truck and transporting it to the construction site, each cubic meter of sand costs an additional 55,000 - 70,000 VND/m3 depending on the distance.
Thus, the total cost of a block of sand for leveling the ground of the enterprise is from 305,000 - 320,000 VND. Of which, the total cost of transportation by both waterway and road accounts for more than 40%, a phenomenon that has never happened in previous years.
Not only the Ring Road 3 project, the scarcity of sand has caused many projects to be delayed, hundreds of sections of the route cannot be accepted. Investors cannot disburse funds, contractors cannot speed up the process. Meanwhile, auxiliary material suppliers such as the concrete industry are burdened with debts from construction contractors.
"The money to buy sand and cement to produce concrete must be paid immediately, but some contractors have not paid for up to 4 months. Our revenue from the beginning of the year is nearly 20 billion, but our debt accounts for 70%. We don't know how long we can last. Now hearing about large orders makes me hesitant," said a representative of a concrete production unit in Thu Duc City.
Many solutions
While the sand material market is experiencing strong fluctuations, Ho Chi Minh City has taken drastic measures to resolve and share difficulties with investors and contractors of key transport projects.
Sand barge on the journey from Vinh Xuong border gate (An Giang) to Ho Chi Minh City.
"The city has studied allocating 120 billion VND to compensate for the project because the current market price of sand imported from Cambodia is more than 360,000 VND/m3, while the contract for construction packages is only at 240,000 VND/m3," said Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai at a meeting with the Management Board of Traffic Works Investment Projects at the end of September.
According to the assessment of the HCM City Traffic Construction Investment Project Management Board, the coordination process between the HCM City Materials Working Group and the People's Committees of Tien Giang, Vinh Long, and Ben Tre provinces is very positive. From October, sand from these three provinces will begin arriving at the construction site after completing the mining licensing procedures.
It is expected that Tien Giang province will have three mines that will complete licensing procedures, with a total supply volume of 6.6 million m3, of which 3 million m3 can be supplied in 2024 alone. Vinh Long province will supply sand to the Ring Road 3 project with a total volume of 1.4 million m3, and 700,000 m3 by the end of 2024. Ben Tre province will supply sand to the Ring Road 3 project by the end of this year, with an estimated 1 million m3.
Not only the Ring Road 3 project, according to Giao Thong Newspaper reporters at some other key project sites such as Tham Luong canal, An Phu intersection, and the expansion of National Highway 50, the contractor has also organized the allocation of volume for each item. This includes shortening the time in some stages such as casting components and technical trenches, which are areas with solutions that are not too dependent on the density of sand.
Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/tphcm-nha-thau-ngoi-tren-lua-vi-cuoc-van-chuyen-cat-192241007220927109.htm
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