Revealing the performance of the industry in the year 2011-12, Spokesperson of All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association said that the local cement dispatches increased to a record level of 23.947 million tons registering an increase of 8.84%. However the exports declined by 9.12% to 8.568 million tons during fiscal 2012. He said that the fiscal year 2011-12 was the third straight year the cement exports have declined.
He further stated that the cement sector added 3 million tons to its total production capacity in the year 2011-12 as its total production capacity increased by 7.23% to 44.217 million tons from 42.235 million tons in 2010-11. However, for the year 2011-12 its capacity utilisation remained stagnant due to sluggish export demand, demise of the construction sector in the country, lack of investment in the housing sector and government’s inability to initiate mega-projects. He said that exports after touching the peak of 10.752 million tons in 2008-09 have decreased to 8.568 million tons in the year 2011-2012, showing a decline of 20.4%.
He said that the hype created on trade with India has so far not been materialised and the exports to that market stood at a meagre 0.605 million tons in 2011-12, well below the expectation of the cement sector. However, the Afghanistan market remained stable and the sector exported 4.715 million tons in 2011-2012 to its eastern neighbour. Exports to other destination through sea excluding India declined to 3.247 million tons showing a reduction of 17%.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2012.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ