KARACHI: Sales of cement dropped 17 percent on month-on-month basis in November but overall sales rose 29 percent on year-on-year basis, according to the data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA).
The data said total cement dispatched in November decreased 17 percent to 1.11Mt, including local cement sales of 1.02Mt and export of 90,000t. But during the last five months (July-November) cement sales rose 24.4 percent to 6.54Mt, including local sales of 6.78Mt and export of 678,000t.
“The sales of the cement have dropped owing to Ramazan and the onset of winter season in upcountry,” said Abdul Rasheed, analyst at Investcap Securities, a local brokerage house. The data showed that cement plants are working with 78 percent production capacity in November because of the lower demand throughout the country.
In the first quarter, there was an increase of 58 percent in net profit of companies with 26 percent growth in the cement demand. Analysts said the growth seen in the last five months in line with their expectations.
