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INDONESIAN LAND SAND EXPORT BAN IS UNLIKELY TO SLOW CONSTRUCTION WORKS IN SINGAPORE

1. Indonesia has announced a ban on concreting sand (land sand) exports. According to the Indonesian Minister of Trade, this ban is being imposed because of environmental reasons and to protect Indonesia's borders. The ban took effect from 23 January 2007, but the Indonesian government has given exporters up to 5 February 2007 to honour existing sand export contracts.

2. Singapore is disappointed with Indonesia’s decision. Singapore Ministers had earlier raised this issue with their Indonesian counterparts, and expressed Singapore's preparedness to work with Indonesia to address their concerns. We regret that Indonesia did not take up our offer to address those concerns.

3. Although Singapore is one of the largest importers of concreting sand from Indonesia, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) has assessed that the ban is unlikely to slow construction works in Singapore.

4. Land sand is used in the construction industry to produce concrete, which is used in the construction of buildings and structures. BCA’s assessment is that the Indonesian ban will not have a significant impact, as there are alternative sources of land sand to meet our construction needs.

5. For example, as part of its on-going efforts to diversify its supply of basic construction materials, HDB has started procuring concreting sand from other sources in the region, outside Indonesia. The industry can also tap on these new sources to meet their concreting sand requirements. BCA will continue to work with the industry to open up new supply sources.

6. The Government will also release sand from its stockpile if necessary to meet any temporary shortage resulting from the disruption of supply from Indonesia. BCA will be briefing the industry on how this will be done.

7. For the longer term, BCA is working closely with the industry to reduce the need for concreting sand in construction. In the past few years, we have explored suitable substitutes for sand in concrete. We have also been promoting the use of alternative construction materials and methods. There has been encouraging progress. For example, many residential projects are now using dry walls instead of concrete or brick walls.

8. We are also encouraging a more extensive use of steel, which is currently more common for high-rise building structures, for all building types. Such a shift towards less concrete based construction will help advance Singapore’s construction industry towards a “Sustainable Construction”, one that adopts the greater use of more renewable materials and more environmentally friendly methods of construction. This is the trend in countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

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Last updated on 24 January 2007