STO to bring 17,000 tons of aggregate and river sand

State Trading Organization Plc (STO), one of the main suppliers of construction materials in the Maldives has said that a 17,000 ton shipment of aggregate and river sand will be brought at the beginning of next month. The company had recently revealed that they were running low on aggregate and river sand, two fundamental materials in construction.

Shahid Ali, the Managing Director of STO told Sun Online today that the company is working hard to alleviate the countrywide shortage of aggregate and river sand, and said that as a result, they will be bringing a shipment totalling 17,000 tons sometime early next month.

“We are quite sure that a 17,000 ton shipment of aggregate and river sand will be brought in sometime early next month,” said Shahid.

He said that the shipment will be coming from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

STO is currently carrying out talks with parties in Pakistan, Malaysia and Bangladesh in their efforts to acquire the products.

While STO has said that they were running low on aggregate and river sand, the second largest suppliers of the products, Sonee Hardware and Nalahiya have also said that they have stopped selling aggregate and river sand due to shortage of stock and supply, and said that they too are yet unable to assure when new stock will be available.

Aggregate was imported to Maldives until now under a special quota from the Indian government. The Indian Ministry of Commerce has informed suppliers that the quota for aggregate has been temporarily revoked from 15 February 2013.