Business

Construction industry: Cement sales rise on higher domestic consumption

Demand shows an increase of 6.18% to 20.02m tons.

Our Correspondent February 04, 2015

Cement dispatches increased to 20.02 million tons during the period compared to 18.86 million tons in the same period of previous fiscal year. PHOTO: REUTERS

KARACHI: Indicating a positive growth in the construction industry, cement sales clocked up an increase of 6.18% in the first seven months (Jul-Jan) of fiscal year 2015.

Cement dispatches increased to 20.02 million tons during the period compared to 18.86 million tons in the same period of previous fiscal year.

“The most encouraging aspect of this growth is that it is led by domestic consumption, which increased 9.45%,” a spokesman for the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) said on Wednesday.

He said higher cement demand depicts a turnaround in the economy.

The factories located in the north showed a robust growth in domestic consumption as they dispatched 12.948 million tons of cement to local markets from July 2014 to January 2015, up 10.6% against 11.703 million tons during the same period of the last fiscal year.

South-based factories registered a growth of 3.8% in domestic dispatches as their sales were 2.54 million tons against 2.44 million tons.

In exports, however, the north-based mills registered a decline of 11.5% as exports were restricted to 2.782 million tons in the first seven months of this fiscal year against 3.143 million tons in the previous year.

In contrast, south-based factories were able to increase cement exports by 12.2% to 1.76 million tons from 1.56 million tons in the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

In January alone, the industry recorded dispatches of 2.898 million tons compared with 2.74 million tons during January 2014, up 5.91%. Again, this was mainly attributed to healthy domestic sales.

Local dispatches during January 2015 were 2.419 million tons against 2.173 million tons during January 2014, up 11.32%. However, export dispatches during January 2015 dropped to 478,000 tons against 563,000 tons during January 2014, down 15.1%.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 5^th, 2015.

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