2024-02-29 09:51:20
From 2021 until now, the price has doubled, running out of quantities is a worldwide problem
Sand becomes a scarce commodity – suppliers either cut back on orders or don’t fulfill them at all.
The chief engineers of major construction companies in Bulgaria are sounding the alarm about this unexpected problem. Due to the lack of raw material, recently concrete centers have to stop work unexpectedly.
The builders explain the shortage of sand as an attempt to raise the price again. Because without this raw material, concrete for the buildings cannot be made. Expectations in the industry are that there will be an increase in prices from March, when river oil will be sold 20% more expensive.
In 2021, there has already been a price hike, as well as gravel, which is also used to make concrete mixes. Then because of the crazy electricity quotes
the extraction and delivery of sand almost doubled in price
Until then, one ton of river sand with a certificate of origin cost 7-8 BGN. Then it became 10-15 BGN without transport. Transportation to a concrete junction adds even more, and quite often on specialized sales sites there are ads for 30-32 leva per ton of sand, and offers for 36 leva are already appearing.
A 20% increase in price means that the price is already chasing BGN 40.
There is also more expensive sand, with prices far above 60 and up to 100 BGN per ton, but it is used more for the production of masonry and other elements, rather than for preparing concrete for foundations.
Simultaneously
an increase in the price of cement is also expected,
which is the third ingredient for making concrete after sand and water. But unlike cement, whose production is concentrated in three large companies in Bulgaria and there are opportunities for import, sand is mined in dozens of places in the country. Instead of providing a lot of competition and thus keeping prices low, however, it does the exact opposite.
We
in recent years, between 6 and 7.5 million tons of river sand have been mined annually,
but if you look at the NSI data chronologically, there is no clear trend of decline or growth in production.
In fact, sand turns out to be a scarce commodity not only in our country, but throughout the world. It has been claimed for years that the one used in construction is the most consumed natural resource after water. This causes illegal mining that destroys nature. The darkest forecasts indicate that around 2050 the planet will no longer have enough for construction.
The world is full of sand, but most of it is unsuitable for making concrete. Large deserts like Npm are useless because it is fine sand with too smooth grains. They do not adhere well to each other, and cement mortar prepared from such sand is of poor quality, and concrete lacks strength.
Not by chance
Dubai is one of the largest importers of sand in the world
because of large-scale construction, with its main supplier being Australia.
Sea sand also cannot be used because it contains too much salt and if it is put into concrete, it will crack after a while.
There are technologies for washing the salt from it, but they are not economically justified. During the last major earthquake in Turkey, the media in our southern neighbor was full of information that the destroyed buildings were made of concrete made precisely with sea sand, which is why the construction was of poor quality.
In Bulgaria, at least so far, there is no proven case for the use of beach sand in construction. Ten years ago, one such case made headlines in Sozopol, but according to DNSK, there is no evidence that the builder mixed concrete with sea sand.
The ideal way to cook is to use a baking tray,
whose teeth have an angular shape and contribute to a stronger connection with other components of the concrete. The annual global demand for this species is estimated at around 50 billion tons.
About 200 tons of sand are needed for the construction of one house, and up to 30 thousand tons for every kilometer of the magistpala. 12 million tons are needed to build a nuclear power plant.
Some varieties of river sand with smaller grain sizes are used for the production of glass, and the smallest – for laminated panels and microchips.
Against the background of the global industrial boom in the last decades, for the last 100 years, the world’s production of sand has increased 23 times. And by 2060, according to experts, it will reach a record 82 billion tons.
Because of the shortage, some countries are pirating sand
For example, China has regularly since 2019 attacked Taiwanese territories, most often Matsu – an archipelago consisting of 19 islands, where there are large deposits of river sand. The regime in Beijing does not consider this act illegal, because according to it, Taiwan is part of China.
Last year, Reuters reported that the Chinese were also spotted at the Ream military base in Cambodia, where a huge dredging machine was brought. This is close to the area where Beijing is financing the construction of its major port facilities.
River sand is also disappearing or diminishing due to natural causes
For example, the construction of many dams along a river reduces the amount of sediment in the downstream reaches, as happened in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. About 50 million tons of sand are mined there annually, but with each subsequent dam, the yield decreases.
And there are many in Kenya, Gambia, Indonesia, India and South Africa
victims of real sand mafias
– illegal mining is so widespread that different clans and gangs are killing each other.
On a global scale, the price of sand increasingly justifies this interest in it. The construction boom that preceded the global financial crisis led to the fact that in just ten years the price of a ton of river sand rose from 7 to 11 dollars.
For the first time this year, global demand has exceeded supply on the legal market. If the imbalance persists, forecasts are that by 2100 the price of a ton of sand will reach $19. The legal sector, however, represents a small part of the world’s supply – the actual quantities are sold in the gray sector.