LAHORE: The cement exports continued its declining trend and went down by 27.11 percent in Nov 2017 against the same period of the last year.
The data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association states that exports from South-based mills took a major hit as these went down by 45.4 percent from 0.129 million tonnes in November 2016 to 0.070 million tonnes in November 2017.
Exports from Northern region also decreased by 8 percent to 0.278 million tonnes last month from 0.350 million tonnes in the same month last year. However, the mills situated in north dispatched 2.96 million tones of cement locally in Nov 2017, which is 10.2 percent higher. The local dispatches in the south rose by 8.4 percent from 0.578 million tonnes in November 2016.
The statistics show that drop in exports continued in the first five months of this fiscal year as the exports came down by 18.22 percent to 2.079 tonnes from 2.542 million tonnes during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. The cement industry is worried over the complacency shown by economic planners towards the cement sector.
The cement sector has so far withstood the impact of decline in exports due to a robust growth in the domestic market. However, the current political uncertainty may impact domestic growth also, said the industry stakeholders adding that the worries are compounded by the fact that more capacities are expected to be commissioned in next three years, starting from January 2018.
