A Bermudian construction company and a shipping firm have teamed up to bring in a shipment of concrete block to try to increase supply options on the island.

Heart and Soul Construction teamed up with Unique Xpress Shipping to import the block from the Dominican Republic.

The ship, which arrived at Penno’s Wharf in St George’s yesterday evening, contained 1,500 pallets of 8in concrete block.

Heart and Soul Construction, which has been in business for 40 years, is led by Fitzgerald Simmons, wile Unique Xpress Shipping is headed by Anthony Clarke.

Ashley Fubler, of Unique Xpress, said: “We wanted to create another option for supply of concrete block.”

She said the companies had received mostly good feedback on their efforts to import block, which they are selling for $419 a pallet, or $3.99 per block. Builders are expected to start picking up the product at Penno’s Wharf today.

This is the first shipment the two companies have brought in. They plan to import more, depending on the level of demand.

During the summer, the industry suffered a period of concrete block shortages. The reasons included constrained supply chains for materials and the limitations of concrete plants on island. SAL and Bierman’s are the major local suppliers of concrete block.

More recently a shortage of cement impacted concrete block and ready-mix concrete production. A cement shipment that was delayed by a month left the Maxcem Bermuda silos at Dockyard running low in early September and suppliers were limiting the amounts sold to individual customers.

Relief arrived with a 6,500-tonne shipment from international supplier Cemex that arrived on September 21.

For builders, the lack of such fundamental materials can slow or even halt work on projects, large and small.

The industry has been busy this year with major projects including the Fairmont Southampton, as well as office buildings Luscar Place and Brookfield’s now-completed Ninety One, while an increased investment in government capital projects is fuelling further demand.