Pakistan’s cement dispatches surge

All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) has reported considerable growth in domestic and export cement dispatches for May 2021 and the 11MFY21. It registered an increase of 49.9 per cent in May 2021, when total cement/clinker dispatches were 3.947Mt against 2.634Mt in the same month of last fiscal year. In the 11MFY21, total cement dispatches stood at 52.222Mt, representing a 20.9 per cent advance when compared with 43.189Mt of cement dispatched during the 11MFY20.

May dispatches
The breakdown showed that domestic cement dispatches in May 2021 increased to 3.201Mt from 2.271Mt in May 2020, depicting a healthy increase of 41 per cent. Exports also surged by 105.6 per cent, from 363,174t in May 2020 to 746,550t in May 2021.

The north-based cement mills dispatched 2.713Mt in local markets in May 2021, showing an increase of 35.6 per cent when compared with 2.001Mt dispatches in May 2020. Exports from northern mills, that due to COVID-19 were just 7,520t in May 2020, showed a healthy advance to 203,625t in May 2021.

Southern-based mills dispatched 487,311t of cement in domestic markets in May 2021, registering robust growth of 81.2 per cent compared to 269,003t in May 2020. Exports from the south were up by 52.7 per cent to 542,925t in May 2021 from 355,654t during the same month last year.

Collective dispatches 11MFY21
In the 11MFY21, total cement dispatches (domestic and exports) were 52.222Mt, which is 20.9 per cent higher than 43.189Mt of cement dispatched during the 11MFY20. Of this total, local dispatches increased by 20.3 per cent to 43.451Mt from 36.13Mt, while exports were up from 7.059Mt to 8.771Mt, showing a growth of 24.3 per cent during the period.

In 11MFY21 northern mills dispatched 36.722Mt locally, up 18.7 per cent from the dispatches during the last budgetary period of 30.943Mt. Exports from the north were 2.365Mt, showing an increase of 22.9 per cent over exports of 1.924Mt during the same fiscal year.

Local dispatches from south-based mills were 6.729Mt during this period, 29.7 per cent higher than the 5.187Mt dispatched during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. Exports from the south recorded 6.406Mt, registering an increase of 24.8 per cent over exports of 5.135Mt during the same period of the previous year.

APCMA budget submissions
The federal budget for 2021-22 is expected on 11 June. The APCMA takes this opportunity to highlight issues on the radar of the government. A representative of the APCMA said the cement industry is subject to a federal exise duty (FED) of PKR1500/t (US$9.71) and general sales tax (GST) of 17 per cent of the maximum retail price, with these taxes amounting to around PKR170/bag. He appealed to the government to abolish the FED, and reduce other duties and taxes to provide an opportunity to the manufacturers to control their cost of production and further optimise/expand their plants, which will help generate more employment and revenues for the government.