According to data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), cement export has registered a healthy growth of 16.50%, reaching 2.8 million tonnes in July-October of this fiscal year compared with last year.
The local despatches were 13.312 million tons in this period, 2.3% higher than 13.011 million tons of local despatches in FY 2018-19.
As a result, total cement despatches in the first four months of this fiscal stood at 16.117 million tons, 4.53% higher than 15.419 million tons recorded last year.
The mills situated in the northern part of the country despatched 11.451 million tons to the domestic market, which is 11.14% higher than the corresponding period of last year.
The South zone despatched 1.861 million tons of cement for the domestic market in the July-October 2019 period, 31.27% lower than 2.707 million tons despatched during the same period last year.
Despatches in October At an All-Time High
In October, the cement sector reported a 9.20% increase in cement despatches, shipping 4.984 million tons cement, an all-time record for a month’s despatches, as compared to 4.564 million tons in October 2018.
As per the data of cement despatches compiled by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers’ Association (APCMA), the cement despatches increased in September 2019, after a decrease in the first two months, followed by an increase in October 2019.
North zone registered an increase of 15.86% in local despatches for October 2019 with 3.605 million tons as compared to 3.111 million tons despatched in October last year. It is interesting to note that the local cement despatches from the northern part of the country alone were higher than the total cement despatches in any of the first two months of this fiscal.
However, the domestic cement uptake in the southern region remained low in October 2019, despatching just 0.591 million tons, down by an alarming 29.41 percent from 0.837 million tons in October 2018.
Exports continued growing with an over 27.95% increase from 0.616 million tons in October 2018 to 0.788 million tons in October 2019.
“It is strange that for the first time two cement producing centers of the country are depicting opposite trends in domestic use of cement. During the last fiscal, the domestic uptake was stronger in the South while this year Northern zone is in a big lead,” said the spokesman of APCMA
