Pakistan might increase cement exports to neighbouring Afghanistan, a number of factory officials said Saturday.

Last week, Pakistan announced it had lifted a ban on cement exports to the war-battered country. The ban followed the October 8 earthquake in Pakistan when the country was in dire need of cement for reconstruction purposes.

Cherat Cement factory official Abdul Rauf told Pajhwok Afghan News that country factories had started exporting cement to Afghanistan. He said that in the last eight days, 95,000t of cement was exported to Kabul.

He said most of factories had started export to Kabul and this might be further increased in the upcoming days. He said Pakistan also wanted to play a role in reconstructing the war-torn country.

According to Pakistan Trade Ministry officials, Islamabad was every year exporting 1.5Mt of cement to Kabul while the central Asian country needed about 0.2Mt.