Small construction companies are accusing their larger competitors of hoarding concrete blocks while their needs go unmet during a concrete shortage on the Island.

William Smith, of On the Go Maintenance, said yesterday that he had been unable to get a mere 45 blocks he needed to build a four-foot-high wall.

?Large companies are buying far more than they need,? he said. ?There are four to five pallets in yards around the Island. There were 350,000 blocks as of last Friday.? Despite this large number of seemingly available blocks, he was unable to purchase what he needed.

Mr. Smith said he thought it was unfair for the large companies to hoard block and that he should be ?entitled to feed (his) family?.

Mike Bierman, CEO of Bierman?s concrete products, agreed yesterday that ?people are hoarding (blocks) at a number of sites?.

He said, from his perspective as a producer of concrete block, hoarding was ?putting an undue pressure? on suppliers. Hoarding creates an ?artificial demand? which ?really, is unfair on small contractors,? he said.

Bierman?s can only create a certain amount of blocks per day, he said, particularly when the amount of cement on the Island is slowing to a trickle due to the strike action at the Bermuda Cement Company.

BCC had been on strike since Thursday as plant workers say they are unsatisfied that their jobs are safe.

?We have lost two production days already this week on it,? Mr. Bierman said. ?We are going to get further and further behind.?

And he said that he warned the Construction Association seven months ago about a potential shortage.

?I asked 60 contractors to give me an idea of the amount of demand for block because I could fix the situation pretty quickly,? Mr. Bierman said.

But, he said, the association gave him no real indication of their demand. ?I was prepared to bring in a barge with a quarter of a million blocks,? he said. ?But I cancelled the barge. As far as I?m concerned, if they did not think it was a problem then neither do I.?

He said the shortage of blocks was a caused by the combination of ?low interest rates and huge development?.

?We are doing the best we can, but we are not magicians,? he said.

Meanwhile, William Morrison, CEO of SAL Ltd., said yesterday that he did not know about any hoarding but his company is working at maximum capacity.

He said SAL was producing around 6,000 blocks per day, six days a week ? as much as it can ? but it is practically sold out every day. ?Between SAL and Bierman?s,? Mr. Morrison said, ?there is the equivalent of two Bermuda cottages going out on the streets every day. Normally we would have a stockpile, that could be drawn from when needed. But unfortunately it feels like, in situations like this, it?s every man for himself.?

When asked if there was a ceiling to the amount of block that one company could purchase at one time, Mr. Morrison said blocks are sold on a ?first come, first serve? basis and advised smaller companies to come early.

?With no cement, most construction companies will come to a halt sooner or later,? Mr. Morrison said.

D&J construction would not comment and Alan Burland of BCM McAlpine could not be contacted yesterday.