Builders and construction material suppliers have been hit by a severe shortage of cement over the past week, caused by a month-long delay in a shipment.

Workers at cement supplier Maxcem Bermuda’s plant at Dockyard were yesterday “scraping” the silos trying to muster whatever they could to provide some supply for the island.

Some of those suppliers who still had some cement in stock were understood to be limiting the amount they sold to individual customers.

However, relief is on the way, with a cement shipment from international supplier Cemex due to arrive at Dockyard next week.

Chris Shanks, manager of Maxcem Bermuda, acknowledged that supplies were running low.

“We’re not completely out of cement, but we’re scraping the silos now,” Mr Shanks said. “On Monday morning we managed to get 500 bags out to the industry.”

He added that the company had been due to take delivery of a shipment in mid-August from Cemex, the supplier and part-owner of Maxcem, but the delivery has not yet arrived.

“The ship has left Tampico, Mexico, this week on a nine-day voyage to Bermuda and we expect it to arrive late on Monday or early on Tuesday,” Mr Shanks added.

The MarineTraffic.com website, which tracks ships, showed the vessel, the Grit Cement IV, was in the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest of Cuba yesterday afternoon with an estimated arrival time in Bermuda on Monday evening.

Mr Shanks said that demand had been steady at between 1,300 and 1,400 tonnes per month. The delivery schedule allowed for a 6,000-tonne shipment every four months — the last one arrived in April. Between them the silos hold about 11,000 tonnes.

Maxcem seeks to keep a buffer of about 1,500 tons — roughly one month’s supply — to allow for a shipment’s late arrival, Mr Shanks said. That buffer had almost run out, he added.

Cement is a critical material for the construction industry and its suppliers. Some of the biggest consumers are SAL and Bierman’s Concrete Products, who produce ready-mix concrete and concrete block.

Emily Biermann, chief executive of Bierman’s, said: “The shortage of cement is having a major impact on our operations. We’ve had to cancel a few ready-mix jobs.

“We’re getting non-stop calls from customers asking if they can buy a bag of cement. Right now, we can’t sell them any, because we need all the bags we have to feed the concrete block plant.”

She added that the island had last seen such a severe cement shortage about a decade ago. Ms Biermann added that she appreciated the efforts of the Maxcem team to keep the island supplied in circumstances beyond their control.

In July, the construction industry was going through a concrete block supply crunch, with challenges including unprecedented demand, equipment upgrades and raw material constraints.

Ms Biermann said since then Bierman’s plant had increased production after undergoing upgrades.