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Construction firms may demonstrate

"I don't think the government will meet the deadline they proposed, as they have kept delaying the timetable since we brought up the problem in October last year."

Pan CHun-jung, deputy chairman of the Chinese National Federation of Industries

Local construction associations could launch demonstrations should the government fail to solve the nationwide shortage of construction materials by mid-February, as it promised yesterday, an association leader said.

"I don't think the government will meet the deadline they proposed, as they have kept delaying the timetable since we brought up the problem in October last year," Pan Chun-jung (潘俊榮), deputy chairman of the Chinese National Federation of Industries (全國工總), told the Taipei Times yesterday after meeting with various government departments and other associations about the material shortage.

"We may take to the streets to express our discontent at that time," he said.

When concerns over the lack of materials emerged toward the end of last year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs consented to reopening the gravel-rich Kaoping River Watershed in southern Taiwan for gravel extraction. In addition, the ministry further scrapped the import quotas for sand and gravel from China for construction work in central and southern Taiwan.

The measures, however, still failed to help local construction firms in a timely manner. One LCD panel maker, AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), said construction of its factory in the Central Taiwan Science-based Industry Park (中部科學園區) was suspended for two days over the material shortage.

Despite a resumption of work, current supplies of sand and gravel were only 80 percent of the regular volume, said Hsiao Ya-wen (蕭雅文), head of corporate communications at AU Optronics.

Chu Ming-chao (朱明昭), director of the ministry's Mines Department, attended the meeting yesterday and responded to the concerns of the construction firms by saying that a few small rivers in Nantou County that were recently opened for extraction could ease the shortage. After the dredging work begins in major rivers, such as the Kaoping River, in mid-February, construction industries won't have to worry about the supply throughout the year, Chu said.

"We need to evaluate bids for the dredging work contracts in accordance with the government's regulations, which will take some time," Chu said.

Pan criticized the government on this point as well, saying that such a bidding process was skewed to the advantage of sand and gravel quarries in the area of the project, which would then benefit from the endemic pork-barrelling of local politicians.

"The prices for the materials will still be high as long as the right of quarrying remains in their hands," Pan said.

The prices of sand and gravel have rocketed from NT$400 or NT$500 per cubic meter to as high as NT$1,000 per cubic meter, Pan said.

The liberalization of sand and gravel import regulations was useless, as there are not enough ships to carry the material, he added.

For the first quarter of the year, the ministry plans to import 2.8 million cubic meters of sand and gravel from China, as the nation can only supply 2.7 million cubic meters. For the year, the ministry estimated the nation will need 66 million cubic meters of the materials.

To a request made by the associations concerning the relaxation of ground quarry regulations, Chu said that at this point only contractors of major public construction projects are allowed to apply for special permits to extract from the ground in current set sites or sites they considered proper for ground quarry.

Others intending to dig will still need to abide by the regular procedures, including obtaining licenses for proposed sites from the local governments, as well as agreement from local residents, Chu said.
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