Cement sales continue to shine

Increase 9.71% during 10MFY16

LAHORE: Sale of the cement industry continued to grow, amounting to an astounding 31.901 million tons in the first 10 months (July-April) of the fiscal year 2015-16 (FY16), according to data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers’ Association (APCMA). This translated into a year-on-year (YoY) increase of 9.71% compared to the corresponding period last year.

The growth in cement consumption has been led solely by domestic markets, with shrinking exports partially offsetting the increase.

Statistics shows that the overall domestic sales in north-based mills increased by 16.02% YoY and in south-based mills by 23.56% YoY. In total, domestic demand increased by 17.29% YoY during 10MFY16. Quantitatively, total domestic despatches were 26.97 million tons for 10MFY16 compared to 23 million tons last year.

However, exports dropped by 18.98% YoY to 4.92 million tons in the period under review.

July

Cement sales to domestic markets in the month of April increased 14.2% to 3.03 million tons compared with 2.65 million tons last year. Exports during April were 0.52 million tons against 0.64 million tons last year, a decline of 19%.



Total sales during April were 3.55 million tons compared to 3.29 million tons during same month last year showing increase of 7.81 %.

Zone-wise figures show that domestic sales in north were 2.49 million tons (+13% YoY). In south domestic despatches were 0.54 million tons (+19% YoY). A major factor that limited the growth in domestic demand is the on-going harvesting season.

The domestic growth is led by private sector as well as government’s spending on infrastructure projects.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 5^th, 2016.

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