ISLAMABAD: The overall cement sales of Pakistan grew 15.1 percent to 38.996 million tonnes during the first 10 months of this fiscal year compared to 33.880 million tonnes during the same period last year.
The cement factories from Northern region despatched 28.999 million tonnes for domestic consumption that was 18.69 percent higher than last year. However, foreign sales saw a slight drop of 1.27 percent to 2.674 million tonnes during this period.
The local sales of mills located in the Southern region rose 12 percent to 6.087 million tonnes, but exports dropped 5 percent to 1.236 million tonnes during the July-March period.
Bullish trend in cement despatches continued unabated in April and exports increased for the second month by over 81 percent as the sector posted highest capacity utilisation.
The industry despatched 4.237 million tonnes in April, up 17.46 percent than the despatches of 3.576 million tonnes achieved during the corresponding month last year.
The domestic consumption was 3.772m tonnes out of which3.111m tonnes were consumed in the Northern part and 0.661m tonnes were consumed in the Southern part, reflecting a growth of 13.62pc.
Cement exports rose to 0.465m tonnes that was 81.4 percent higher over the corresponding period of last year. The association spokesman said the upsurge in consumption is encouraging for the economy as this commodity basically improves the infrastructure and reduces housing deficit, however, the recent increase in Federal Excise Duty would hurt the local consumption as this will have an impact of Rs15 per bag.
The industry in its budget proposals over the years demanded to abolish the FED as cement is not a luxury item and FED is always placed on items to discourage its usage, the spokesman added. Increase in cement exports is a good omen, however, the major factor behind it is substantial decline in the rupee value against the US dollar that improved the competitiveness of cement in the global market, he said. The government should decrease the taxes on cement not only to keep us competitive in global market but also boost local consumption, he added.
