Pakistan reports weaker export revenues although volumes rise in 11MFY20
The Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) of Pakistan has released cement export data for the eleven months of July 2019 to May 2020 in addition to April production data for 10MFY20.
Export revenues declined in dollar terms even though volumes increased, reflecting a weaker global market for cement and clinker.
Pakistan's cement industry earned USD242.50m of export revenue by exporting 6.562Mt of cement and clinker in 11MFY19-20, compared to USD260.17m from 6.136Mt of exports in the year-ago period. This represents a 6.79 per cent decline in dollar terms, but reflects a growth of 6.94 per cent in terms of quantity, during this period, as reported by FBS.
In local currency terms, the export value increased by 9.49 per cent to PKR38.05bn from PKR34.75bn during this export period. Nevertheless, the cost per tonne fell from USD42.40/t in 11MFY18-19 to USD36.951/t in 11MFY19-20.
However, recent trends indicate the green shoots of a recovery. In May 2020, revenues rose to USD19.30m on the export of 608,054t from USD13.13m with cement and clinker exports of 363,563t in April 2020. This represents a substantial expansion of 47.01 per cent and 67.25 per cent in terms of both value and quantity, respectively.
In addition, when compared with annual data from May 2019 (USD17.04m from 398,079t), a growth trend is also observed. The value of exports increased by 13.22 per cent and 52.75 per cent in terms of quantity YoY.
Production in 10MFY20
Pakistan's Federal Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has also released production data for the ten months covering July 2019-April 2020 and April alone, with a footnote that overall output of large-scale manufacturing industries (LSMI) decreased by 8.96 per cent YoY for July-April 2019-20 compared to July-April 2018-19. However, the LSMI output decreased by 41.89 per cent for April 2020 compared to April 2019 and 32.85 per cent, when compared to March 2020.
Cement production too contracted during this period on a cumulative and YoY basis. Over the period, Pakistani cement production decreased by 0.42 per cent YoY to 33.33Mt compared to 33.47Mt a year earlier. The downward trend was also observed in April 2020, when production fell by 16.92 per cent to 3.276Mt versus 3.943Mt in April 2019.
Pakistan has 25 cement plants with 50 production lines with a total production capacity of 69.164Mta of cement in country.
