LAHORE: Cement dispatches in the country have reached 31.901 million tons during July-April, showing 9.71 percent growth over the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.
The growth in the cement consumption has been led solely by domestic markets. Statistics shows that the overall domestic dispatches in North-based mills increased by 16.02 percent to 22.167 million tons and in South-based mills by 23.56 percent to 4.806 million tons. In total, the domestic demand increased by 17.29 percent during the 10 months of the current fiscal year.
Quantitatively, total domestic dispatches were 26.97 million tons from July 2015 to April 2016 as compared to 23 million tons during the same period of the last fiscal year, while exports dropped 18.98 percent to 4.92 million tons during the first 10 months of the current fiscal against 6.08 million tons during the same period of the last fiscal year.
Cement dispatches to the domestic markets during April increased by 14.2 percent to 3.03 million tons as compared to 2.65 million tons during the same month of the last year.
Exports during April were 520,500 tons against 640,000 tons during April 2015, showing a decline of 18.66 percent.
Total dispatches during April were 3.55 million tons as compared to 3.29 million tons during the same month of the last year, showing an increase of 7.81 percent.
A major factor that limited the growth in domestic demand is the ongoing harvesting season.
Zone-wise figures show that the domestic dispatches by mills located in North were 2.488 million tons as compared to 2.19 million tons during the same month of the last fiscal year, depicting a growth of 13.21 percent.
In South the domestic dispatches were 543,119 tons compared with dispatches of 456,616 tons in April 2015, depicting a growth of 18.94 percent.
The domestic growth in the country is led by private sector as well as government’s spending in infrastructure projects which have helped the demand to grow.
The export performance has been negative due to slowdown in countries where Pakistan has been exporting because of lower prices of commodities.
