The price of a bag of cement in Sindh and Balochistan has jumped beyond PKR500 (US$4.70), a private news channel reports.

Cement industry sources were quoted as saying that the cement price has been increased in the range of PKR10-20/bag (US$0.09-0.19), due to the power tariff hike and rise in the international prices of coal, which has pushed up the per bag price of cement towards US$5.

Analysts said that the price of cement was seen generally declining in winter due to the slowdown in the construction sector and thereby lower demand of cement, but with increased production costs, the price hike was unavoidable.