Since the beginning of the year, construction materials, especially construction sand prices in Son La province, have increased, affecting production, business and construction activities, especially housing projects of the people.
Mr. Nguyen Van Son, (Chieng Le ward, Son La city) said that in early 2025, his family started construction of a 3-storey house with a total area of 120m2. However, compared to the present, the price of construction materials, especially sand, has nearly doubled, causing the cost of building a house for his family to increase by 10-15% compared to the original plan.
Similarly, the family of Mr. Bui Van Trieu (Chieng Coi ward, Son La city) who is also building an unfinished house had to temporarily stop because the material price increased too much.
"In addition to the increase in construction material prices, the source of goods is very scarce, there are many times when there is no sand or construction bricks, my family has to temporarily postpone construction and cut down on unnecessary items" - Mr. Trieu shared.
For households building houses, the continuous increase in construction materials has caused the total cost to increase to hundreds of millions of VND depending on the scale of the project. Many families have to reduce the design or extend the construction progress, waiting for the material price to "low down".
According to a survey by Lao Dong Newspaper reporters, the selling price of construction materials at some dealers in Son La City is currently fluctuating at 15,600 - 16,000 VND/kg, an increase of about 2,000/kg compared to the beginning of 2025.
Mr. Chu Van Dung - the owner of a construction materials agency (in Son La city), said that since the beginning of the year, the price of iron has increased 4 times. However, there is currently a shortage of goods, especially non-ferrous iron - a common type used in roofing. Currently, the amount of imported goods is down 50% compared to the end of 2024.
" Especially for construction sand products, there is currently not enough to supply to customers. There are customers who have pre-ordered but have to wait a whole week and the quantity is very small, only a few dozen units" - Mr. Dung said.
Mr. Dinh Xuan Dung - Deputy Director of Binh An Concrete Company, (Chieng Mung Commune, Mai Son District) said that for more than a month now, the Company has had to reduce its operating capacity to 60% due to scarce sand resources.
"On average, the Company imports about 1,000m3 of sand per month to produce concrete, but for more than a month now, the Company has only imported 400m3. The scarcity of sand has led to a high price of sand from 420,000 - 500,000 VND/m3, causing profits to decrease" - Mr. Dung said.
Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Son La province said that currently, the whole province has 162 mines of minerals used for common construction materials included in the exploration, exploitation and use planning.
Of which, there are 53 quarries for common construction materials, 13 quarries for artificial sand, 53 natural sand mines, 12 clay mines for bricks, tiles and 31 filling mines. Mineral management and exploitation activities are carried out through licensing and auctioning of exploitation rights.
"Given the current high price of materials, the People's Committee of Son La province has directed relevant functional departments to strengthen inspection and supervision of construction material production and trading activities to prevent hoarding and price hike. At the same time, it creates conditions for materials manufacturing enterprises to soon increase capacity and increase supply to the market" - Mr. Hung said.
