The island’s celebrated uptick in construction came at something of a cost this week, with unprecedented demand resulting in a cement shortage.

But help is on the way, according to Chris Shanks, manager at Maxcem, who hopes for the supply ship Diego to arrive on Sunday or Monday to top up supplies.

“I hate it when it affects the smaller contractors, but we have some critical jobs like America’s Cup and Morgan’s Point that need to go ahead,” Mr Shanks told The Royal Gazette last night.

Cement usage has surged: the company sold about 2,300 tonnes for January and February 2015, and 2,600 for the same period last year — but it jumped to 3,600 tonnes for this year.

“It’s a drastic spike, and March has been the same,” said Mr Shanks, whose staff will be scraping the remainder of cement from the walls of the company’s silo in Dockyard from 8am today, to keep bulk trucks running.

Contractors, not all of whom were happy with the news, were told this week that supplies were being doled out on a preferential basis.

Concurrent with a bumper appetite for cement, the island’s usual ship, originally scheduled to arrive on Saturday, got delayed in dry dock. The vessel is now being loaded in Jamaica.

There will be no bag sales of cement until the Diego arrives. Mr Shanks apologised to contractors who had been inconvenienced.