LAHORE: The total cement dispatches declined 6.25 per cent in March 2022 to clock-in at 5.04 million tonnes, compared with 5.37 million tonnes during the same month of last year.
According to the data released by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), the local cement dispatches during March 2022 recorded an increase of 4.02 per cent to 4.74 million tonnes, compared with 4.56 million tonnes in March 2021.
The exports suffered a massive decline of 63.77 per cent as the volumes reduced from 815,120 tonnes in March 2021 to 295,321 tonnes in March of the current year.
During the month under review, the north based mills dispatched 3.85 million tonnes cement in the domestic markets, showing an increase of 1.07 per cent against 3.8 million tonnes dispatched during the same month of last year.
The south based mills dispatches witnessed a growth of 18.94 per cent to 897,697 tonnes of cement in the local markets during March 2022, as against the dispatches of 754,741 tonnes during March 2021.
The exports from north based mills massively declined 71.26 per cent as the quantities reduced from 280,411 tonnes in March 2021, to 80,584 tonnes in March 2022.
Similarly, the exports from south also fell 59.84 per cent to 214,737 tonnes in March 2022 from 534,709 tonnes during the same month last year.
During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the total cement dispatches (domestic and exports) were 40.81 million tonnes, 5.81 per cent lower than 43.33 million tonnes dispatched during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
Further analysis indicate that the domestic uptake of the commodity declined 0.03 per cent to 36.17 million tonnes from 36.18 million tonnes during July-March 2021, whereas the exports during the same period recorded a massive decline of 35.04 per cent to 4.64 million tonnes from 7.14 million tonnes during July-March 2021.
The north based mills dispatched 29.93 million tonnes of cement domestically during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, showing a decline of 2.27 per cent, as against the cement dispatches of 30.63 million tonnes during the same period of fiscal year 2021.
The exports from north declined 64.47 per cent to 679,101 tonnes during July-March 2022, compared with 1.91 million tonnes exported during the same period last year.
The domestic dispatches by the south based mills during July-March 2022, showed an increase of 12.31 per cent to 6.23 million tonnes, compared with 5.55 million tonnes of cement dispatched during the same period of last fiscal year.
There was, however, a substantial decline of around 24.31 per cent in the exports from the south zone as the volumes reduced to 3.96 million tonnes during the first nine months of the current fiscal year, compared with 5.23 million tonnes during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
APCMA spokesman said that the steep decline in the cement exports is hurting not only the manufacturers but the government’s revenue collection and foreign exchange as well.
There is a need to formulate industry friendly policies to catch-up with the cement sales in the international markets as well as to increase indigenous consumption of the commodity.
