Cement sales climb 6.38% to 18.21m tons in 6MFY16

Growth mainly led by domestic consumption, exports remain gloomy

KARACHI: Cement dispatches have increased to 18.21 million tons in the first six months (Jul-Dec) of fiscal year 2015-16, up 6.38% compared to 17.12 million tons in the same period last year, according to data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA).

Local sales continued to help overall dispatches during the period as cement exports remained under pressure.

“This growth is mainly led by domestic consumption, which increased by a healthy 16.34% to 15.2 million tons during Jul-Dec 2015 compared to 13.06 million tons during Jul-Dec 2014,” according to the APCMA.

The country’s exports during the same period declined by a massive 25.68% to 3.01 million tons compared to 4.06 million tons during Jul-Dec period of 2014-15.

The factories located in north witnessed an increase of 15.32% in domestic consumption by selling 12.63 million tons in domestic markets from Jul-Dec 2015-16 against 10.96 million tons during the same period of last year.



South-based factories witnessed even more growth in domestic dispatches by supplying 2.56 million tons of cement to local markets from Jul-Dec 2015-16 against 2.10 million tons during same period of last year, up 21.63%.

In exports, the north-based mills registered decline of 25.09% as exports were restricted to 1.9 million tons during the period under review compared to 2.54 million tons during the same period last fiscal year.

South-based factories also suffered a decline of 26.67% in exports that dropped to 1.11 million tons compared to 1.52 million tons during same period of last fiscal.

The industry dispatched 3.44 million tons of cement in December 2015 compared with 3.11 million tons dispatched in December 2014, up 10.53%.

The local dispatches were 2.98 million tons during December 2015 against 2.5 million tons during December 2014, a significant increase of 19.28%. The exports dispatches showed decline by 25.39% as against 610,000 tons exports during December 2014, the industry exported 455,000 tons during December 2015.

The APCMA drew the government’s attention towards declining exports, adding that illegal imports of under invoiced cement from Iran needed to be tackled.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2016.

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