LAHORE: The cement sale has decreased by 6.4 per cent in September on annual basis as dispatches for the corresponding month clocked in at 2.95 million tons.
Meanwhile, the cement exports continued their downward trajectory and plummeted by 36 percent YoY where growth in local dispatches (+2.5 percent YoY) failed to compensate for the decline in exports.
Exports have continued to fall off-late due to (1) proliferation of cheaper Iranian cement in Afghanistan and (2) imposition of antidumping duty by South Africa.
According to experts, exports dwindled by 36.1 percent annually and 35.7 percent YoY in both the North and South region due to increasingly tough circumstances in major export markets (Afghanistan, Africa etc.). Combined with lackluster South local dispatches (-7.3 percent YoY), overall dispatches for the month turned negative. On a cumulative basis however, 1QFY16 dispatches now stand at 8.27m tons vis-à-vis 8.16m tons in the corresponding fiscal period (+1.4 percent YoY) with increasing local dispatches (+11.0 percent YoY in 1QFY16) compensating for declining exports.
