The building industry faces increasing costs and lost revenue as the row over the future of Bermuda Cement Company (BCC) drags on.

The company faces losing its lease on the Dockyard plant at the end of 2005.

BCC imports bulk cement and bags it for distribution, but Construction Association president Mel Wright said importing pre-bagged cement is more costly.

He said: ?Obviously we are concerned about anything which is going to affect supply of cement at this time.

?Construction is booming and anything which will disrupt that will be of great concern.

?As far as who supplies cement ? it?s a free market and we don?t have any particular comment.

?I can?t say any large contractor is going to allow a cement shortage to stop them from working.There might be additional increases in costs. It?s much more expensive to bring it by bag than buy bulk and bag it here.

?Everyone already thinks construction costs are very, very high at the moment so anyone or anything which increases costs yet again is a concern.?

Mr. Wright could not estimate how much it would increase building costs.

?I imagine there are plenty of people with their calculators out now, working it all out.?

He said revenue and jobs would be lost from the Island if the plant doesn?t continue.

BCC boss Jim Butterfield has threatened that if his company loses the lease after 40 years it will take its equipment out. But finding a new site is difficult.

Cement comes directly off ships to the silos at Dockyard.

?Alternative sites would be costly,? said Mr. Wright. He said a deep water port was needed to avoid an increase of trucks bringing it from Hamilton docks to a new location.

?Dockyard is the ideal location for it. If it closes down it makes the logistics more difficult and the workers will have nothing to do.?

Four workers are employed at the plant.

The row over BCC has gotten personal. Bermuda Industrial Union president Derrick Burgess reportedly said the plant should go to ?our people? while BCC boss Jim Butterfield compared Bermuda to Zimbabwe in the Bermuda Sun after inferring the company was being confiscated.

Yesterday he said: ?We want to find a pleasant way forward. It has gotten very ugly.?

He said a merger was a possibility. ?We don?t who we are dealing with. That?s one of the frustrations.?

He revealed the company had just spent $50,000 on new plant but would send it back to the supplier rather than hand it over free.

But he suggested 25 percent of the shares could be made available to new investors.

Government Sen. Reginald Burrows said in the Senate that it was unfortunate that Mr. Butterfield was being critical that his 40-year-old contract for the plant at Dockyard was going out to tender.

?I would have thought that his company better than anyone else would know exactly how to bid on the contract,? he said. ?I dare say, that as far as I?m aware, the best tender for the facility will be, or should be, one that receives permission to operate it.

?Some people realise that after a number of years other people should be given the opportunity but I feel that if the bids are fair, no one should complain about winning or losing the concession.?

Bermuda was small so there was only room was one place on the Island where cement silos could be placed, he said.

Last night landlords the West End Development Corporation (Wedco) released a statement saying they had been fair and transparent about the new lease and had requested an expression of interest via the press in August, 2003 with a November, 2003 deadline.

Wedco chairman Walter Lister said several companies were interested. Those companies will be invited to put a formal proposal between April and June 15 with a September 2004 decision date.

Mr. Lister said: ?In determining this process, fair consideration has been given to the transition period required in the event that a new tenant is selected and the timeliness of notice should the existing tenant not be chosen for the renewal of its lease.?