LAHORE: The cement exports massively declined by 27.31 percent to 2.028 million tons in the first four months of current fiscal year against 2.790 million tons during the same period last year.
This decline in exports has limited the growth of the cement industry to only 3.79 percent during July 15 to Oct 2015. The data of APCMA states that exports during October 2015 were 528,000 Tons against 729,000 Tons during October, 2014 showing decline of 27.52pc. Total despatches during October, 15 were 3.124 Million Tons compared to 2.824 Million Tons during same month last year showing an increase of 10.61 percent.
Statistics indicate that cement sector is now almost completely dependent on domestic sales, the share of which has increased to over 80 percent in total cement sales compared to around 50 percent in 2008-09, as domestic sales continue to increase while exports are showing constant decline.
North based mills despatched 7.803 million tons to the domestic markets during July to October 15 that was 13.65 percent higher than the despatches during same period of last fiscal. Exports from north declined during this period to 1.292 million tons i.e. by 25.85 percent over last fiscal year.
