Tajikistan is experiencing a nationwide cement supply crisis, and market prices have risen sharply in a short period of time. The retail price of 50 kg bagged cement has soared from 50 to 55 somoni a month ago to 70 to 90 somoni, and even higher in some remote areas. This crisis is not a local fluctuation, but a systematic shortage from the capital Dushanbe to the border provinces, which reflects the superposition of the triple pressures of capacity maintenance, demand expansion and logistics bottlenecks. In Dushanbe, the
capital, cement has become scarce. The product is only available at a few outlets in the construction market and is usually only available for the first half of the day. Cement in bags, which a week ago was around 50 somoni, is now 70 to 75 somoni, and the rally is continuing. The city's largest construction market sold the last batch of low-priced cement for 75 somoni on May 20. The situation in Khatlon Oblast is equally grim, with the price of a bag of cement rising by 8 to 20 somoni in the past week, the price of products from Huaxin Gayou Cement Plant and Sinoma International Moir Cement reaching 75 to 80 somoni, and the price of "Tojikcement" and "Khatlon" brands rising to 65 to 70 somoni. A month ago, the price of these products was only 42 to 55 somoni. Local dealers said that the inventory was almost exhausted, the delivery time of new goods was uncertain, and even high-rise construction enterprises were facing the risk of supply interruption.
In Sughd Oblast, the largest construction market in the city of Khujand confirmed that the prices of building materials had risen across the board in the past month, with local manufacturers raising prices in tandem with large regional factories. It is worth noting that in addition to the price increase, the cement supply quota has also been significantly tightened. In the past, a truck could deliver two trailers of cement to a single store, but now only one trailer is allocated to each store in order to balance the supply and prevent looting. What is more noteworthy is that the price difference between local cement and imported cement has almost disappeared, and the price of cement imported from Tashkent is basically the same as that of local products, indicating that the shortage pressure has been transmitted across borders to the whole regional market. The most serious
crisis is in Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast. Truckers transporting building materials to Khorog, the state capital, were forced to queue for days in front of wholesale cement warehouses. Local residents reported that there was almost no cement to sell in the market in the past month, and even if a small number of batches arrived, they were often snapped up directly from warehouses or trucks by pre-agreement without entering the retail sector. The local single-bag cement price has broken through 70 somoni, and it is speculated that it may be approaching a high of 90 somoni.
From the perspective of causes, the contraction of the supply side and the expansion of the demand side form a sharp opposition. Industry sources pointed out that a number of large factories, including the Sinoma International Moir Cement Plant with an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons, were undergoing equipment maintenance and shutdown, and although some factories maintained limited sales with inventory, the output gap had widened significantly. Although Huaxin Gayou'er Cement Plant has resumed full production in March, it is still insufficient to make up for the overall supply gap. At the same time, the pressure on the demand side continued to increase: the overall acceleration of housing construction, road and infrastructure projects, the increase in exports to Afghanistan, and the post-disaster reconstruction work after the mudslide in Kulob on May 1 further boosted the demand for cement. Although manufacturers claim that production costs have not risen, attributing the shortage to maintenance, high regional demand and logistics constraints, the soaring market prices are indisputable.
A noteworthy contradiction is that in the first quarter of 2026, Tajikistan's cement production reached 1.55 million tons, an increase of 9% over the same period last year. In the context of production expansion, there is still such a serious supply gap, indicating that demand growth has far exceeded the pace of capacity release. Market analysts warn that the current supply scale can no longer meet the country's growing construction demand, and the shortage of cement is evolving from a local phenomenon to a national issue. If the maintenance cycle of major factories is extended or export demand rises further, the prospects for easing the supply crisis in the short term will face greater uncertainty.
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