The Pakistan Economic Survey 2017-18 was released on 26 April by Dr Miftah Ismail, adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs. The report provides a detailed overview of Pakistan's economic performance during the year.
 
According to the survey, the cement sector in Pakistan comprises 20 companies, with total listed capital of PKR72.618bn (US$518.7m) and the market capitalisation of PKR610.576bn (US$436m).

The recent growth in domestic cement demand has been complemented by surging exports for the second consecutive month as cement export increased by 85 per cent in March 2018. Exports started to improve in February 2018 and have continued to increase in March 2018. There has been sudden surge to Afghanistan that increased from 0.037Mt in March 2017 to 0.106Mt in March 2018.

The total cement sales in March 2018 set a historical high by 4.652Mt. This was 17.3 per cent higher than the sales of 3.965Mt achieved in March 2017. Domestic consumption was 4.26Mt out of which 3.543Mt was consumed in the north and 0.717Mt was consumed in the south part of country showing a growth of 13.5 per cent.
 
During the first nine months of the current fiscal year, the industry sold 34.76Mt of cement which is 14.70 per cent higher than 30.30Mt dispatches during the corresponding period last year.

Environmental study
Meanwhile, the cement Industry study for delineation of negative and positive mining areas for installation of cement plants in the salt range in Punjab has been completed.To safeguard environmental concerns and to promote new investment in cement sector through a well-crafted strategy, Director General Mines & Minerals engaged NESPAK (consortium with Sogreah Artelia Group-French) for the task.
 
Consultants have submitted the final report along with recommendations and operational guidelines. In the light of this study report, an area of 979km2 out of 8872km2 in the salt range is notified as negative area for installation of cement plants, whereas remaining area of 7893km2 is conditionally positive area.