FDI Pakistan touches 53% growth in FY18

Pakistan's cement and construction industry received foreign direct investment (FDI) of US$766.3m during the 12 months of FY17-18 (July -June), compared to US$501.9m received in corresponding months of last fiscal year. This translates a YoY growth of 53 per cent, says the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).

The breakdown shows that cement industry attracted FDI of US$59m and the construction industry US$707.30m compared to US$36m and US$465.90m, respectively in July 2016-June 2017.

According to SBP, the cement industry makes a direct contribution of 7.5 per cent to large-scale manufacturing. Moreover, the cement manufacturers will expand their production capacities aggressively, from 49.4Mta to 72.8Mta in the next few years, and the additional capacity would result in the imports of machinery of around US$1.5bn (near PKR178bn) over next few years, says SBP.

In the cement industry, the cost of machinery imports comes around 70 per cent of total cost of the unit/project. This means, the overall estimated cost of expansion would be around PKR254bn (US$2bn).