In the first four months of FY14/15, Pakistan’s cement producers and exporters exported 3.116Mt of cement, down 3.8 per cent YoY. The total value of the shipments fell by three per cent from US$189.77m to US$184m.

While volumes were down the average export price of cement rose by 0.58 per cent to US$58.57/t in 4MFY14/15 from US$59.04/t in 4MFY13/14, according to Pakistan’s Federal Bureau of Statistics.

The MoM data also show a negative trend as the country exported 687,174t of cement and earned US$41.24m in October 2014, compared to 899,343t at US$52.52m in September 2014. This reflects a fall of 23.59 per cent and 21.48 per cent in terms of quantity and US$ value, respectively.

Breakdown of export figures show that Afghanistan was the top importer with some 1.107Mt, but the July-October 2014 period shows a 24.3 per cent YoY fall. However, Pakistani cement producers and traders were able to increase cement exports to India by 76.8 per cent to 245,589t. Exports to the rest of the world advanced by nine per cent.