Pakistan: northern plants register strong July sales

Domestic cement sales in Pakistan rose 12.38 per cent YoY to 2.018Mt in July 2016 from 1.8Mt in July 2015 as large government-funded infrastructure projects pushed up demand, according to data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA).

The heavy monsoon rains slowed down construction activities in many parts of the country, but analysts said the overall revenue of the domestic cement industry is expected to grow in the coming years on the back of higher sales volumes.

In terms of Pakistan's regions, domestic dispatches in country's North Zone reached 1.667Mt in July 2016 compared with 1.517Mt in the equivalent year-ago period and in South Zone they rose to 0.35Mt, up from 0.279Mt.

Meanwhile, total dispatches, which include exports, increased 9.82 per cent to 2.483Mt in July 2016 compared to 2.26Mt during the same month last year. Exports dropped 0.06 per cent to 465,102t in July against 465,369t during the same month last year. July exports to Afghanistan declined to 149,666t, down 15.87 per cent compared to 177,900t a year earlier. Exports by sea also substantially decreased to 177,492t, or 27.43 per cent, during July 2016 as against 244,590t during July 2015.

The manufacturing units of north region registered a growth both in local dispatches and exports at 9.85 per cent and 11.82 per cent, respectively, while the south region units registered 26.15 per cent local growth, but faced decline of 17.02 per cent in exports.

“Quantitatively, during July 2016, exports from north zone were 306,000t while exports from south zone were 159,000t,” APCMA said in a statement. “In July 2015 the cement exports from north were 274,000t and from south were 192,000t.”