The high price of construction sand makes it difficult for businesses to negotiate fixed-price and lump-sum contracts.

Surveying around sand gathering points in the city, at the beginning of 2025, the price of construction sand at the yard was about 330-340 thousand VND/m3. From the end of May to the beginning of June 2025, the price of construction sand at the yard increased by an average of 60-70 thousand VND/m3. Sand resources are scarce because the city currently does not have new licenses for construction sand mines exploited from riverbeds, sand resources from Quang Nam are almost no longer supplied to the Hue market, while sand resources from Quang Tri are increasingly scarce.

Ms. NTB, owner of a sand storage yard in Phu Xuan district, said that the reason for the sharp increase in sand prices in Hue is due to the dependence on sand sources from other provinces. We have to import sand from mines in the mountainous areas of Quang Tri with long transportation distances, causing costs to increase significantly. Currently, the city is encouraging the development of artificial sand and not licensing new mines for natural construction sand, so recently, the supply is scarce and sand prices have increased sharply. Each month, our facility imports about 1,500m3 of sand, with clear sand sources and warehouse receipts. The current selling price is about 420-430 thousand VND/m3 at the yard. Currently, it is the peak construction season while there is a shortage of goods, causing the price of construction sand to increase every day. If there is no source of sand from the mountainous areas of Quang Tri to compensate, the price of sand could increase to 500-600 thousand VND/m3.

Currently, in the city, there is only one licensed sand and gravel mine at Tan My 4 alluvial site (Phong My commune, Phong Dien town). For many years, business owners have imported sand from neighboring provinces and cities (Quang Nam, Quang Tri) to gather at planned sand and gravel gathering sites to increase the supply of construction sand in the area. However, recently, this supply has been interrupted, causing sand prices to "increase". According to construction businesses, sand prices account for about 20% of construction costs, and for large construction projects, they will greatly affect construction costs. The sudden increase in sand prices threatens to affect the construction progress of projects in the area.

Mr. Van Viet Thanh, Director of Hue City Irrigation Construction Joint Stock Company, said that normally during the peak construction season each year, due to high construction demand, sand prices only increase by 20-30 thousand VND/m3. However, this year the imbalance between supply and demand has led to a sudden increase in sand prices.

Meanwhile, construction contracts in Hue are mainly fixed-price and lump-sum contracts (contracts for construction within 12 months). In cases where construction materials suddenly increase, the announced unit price of the Department of Finance is always 1 to 2 months later than the market price. The reason for this problem is that the construction material suppliers in the area provide information to the departments and branches to announce the unit price, "hide" information, only quote the old price of materials but sell at the new price, leading to the updated data of the departments and branches not reflecting the nature of the price of construction materials on the market. Meanwhile, even for adjusted contracts, there is still not enough legal basis to adjust the price, causing difficulties for businesses.

Mr. Van Viet Thanh said that with the current increase in material prices, including construction sand, a series of construction contractors accepting projects with lump-sum contracts or fixed-price contracts are facing the risk of "breaking down", especially for public investment projects, contractors are in a dilemma, construction is slow, affecting the overall progress. "Previously, the enterprise, together with the City Construction Association, organized a meeting with functional departments, branches, and design consulting units located in the area to grasp the difficulties and problems regarding unit prices of construction materials in construction and material supply activities in the locality. Thereby, proposing solutions to remove them, in order to facilitate contractors when implementing projects. However, the results were not as expected," said Mr. Thanh.

According to the Department of Construction, this unit regularly coordinates with the Department of Finance to review fluctuations in construction material prices in the city, periodically publish prices of construction materials every month and publish construction price indexes every quarter. In case of major fluctuations, the inter-department will hold extraordinary meetings and review price announcements to ensure that the basic announced prices are consistent with the market.

Article and photos: HA NGUYEN

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/kinh-te/khan-hiem-nguon-cung-gia-cat-tang-vot-154781.html