LAHORE: The cement exports from the country have decreased by 18.98pc to 4.92 million tonnes during the first ten months (July-April) of the ongoing fiscal against 6.08 million tonnes during same period of last fiscal year.
According to statistics, the exports during April 2016 were 0.52m tonnes against 0.64m tonnes during April 2015, showing decline of 18.66pc. Total despatches during April 2016 were 3.55m tonnes compared to 3.29m tonnes during same month last year, showing increase of 7.81pc.
A major factor that limited the growth in domestic demand is the ongoing harvesting season. Zone wise figures show that the domestic despatches by mills located in North were 2.488m tonnes compared with despatches of 2.19m tonnes during same month last fiscal depicting a growth of 13.21 %.
In South the domestic despatches were 543,119 tonnes compared with despatches of 456,616 tonnes 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.
