Government says there are fears that the country will continue having high prices of cement on the market due to low production.

Minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe said this in Parliament after being questioned by the lawmakers to explain why cement prices are skyrocketing.

Gwengwe has told us that his ministry is tirelessly working with local manufactures on prospects of increasing capacity of their production.

“Basically, the key challenge that we have is that our production of cement is not sufficient to meet the national demand so we are having to rely from our neighboring countries like Zambia that exporting a lot of cement to Malawi,” said Gwengwe.

He has however assured people in the country that local companies are expected to double cement production by next year.

“We are encouraging our local producers, namely Shayona, which has installed capacity which will double their normal capacity by early next year,” expressed optimism the Trade Minister.

Recently, the country`s local cement producers admitted that there are experiencing low cement production as compared to demand on the market.

The development prompted most traders to import cement from neighboring Zambia.