“Primarily, the widening gap between demand and supply provided a room to increase cement price in the summer season,” said Shaikh Zafar, senior manager Sales and Marketing at Maple Leaf Cement.
Furqan Punjani, analyst at the Topline Securities, said the market witnessed 24 per cent surge in the demand during the first 11 months of 2009/10. Owing to an increase in the cost of production, a number of production lines are lying dormant in the industry, while many others were not operating up to the potential, he said.
“This is the season (May-July) in which many government projects were completed and cement manufacturing companies tried to take the benefit of it.”
