LAHORE: Cement dispatches witnessed 2.6 percent increase during the month of June to 3.35 million tonnes against last year’s 3.26 million tonnes during the same period. Local dispatches continued their upsurge, rising by a strong 9.2 percent to 2.96m tons during June.
According to the data released by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association, during the fiscal year 2015-16, cement industry despatched 33 million tonnes in local markets posting a robust growth of 17.01 percent compared with local despatches during the same period of last fiscal year.
Exports from the country massively declined by 18.38 percent to 5.87 million tonnes compared with exports during last fiscal year that were 7.2 million tonnes. Exports to India have increased by 42.53% to 992,631 tonnes during fiscal year 2015-16 against 696,417 tonnes during last fiscal.
However, the decline in exports to Afghanistan by 15.1% and via sea to other countries by 32.68% affected the overall exports of the country. Instable situation in Afghanistan and influx of Iranian cement limited exports to 2.44 million tonnes during fiscal year 15-16 compared to 2.87 million tonnes during last fiscal.
Likewise, increased competition on global level coupled with economic slowdown in countries where Pakistan has been exporting reduced the country’s exports by sea to 2.44 million tonnes during fiscal year 2015-16 compared to 3.62 million tonnes during last fiscal.
