Four months export revenue growth

Pakistan's cement industry earned foreign exchange revenue of US$26.74m by exporting 616,648t of cement during October 2018, compared to US$29.05m on 671,913t of cement in previous month. This represents a fall of 7.9 per cent and 8.23 per cent in value and quantity, respectively on MoM, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

If compared to October 2017, earnings of US$23.3m on 472,216t of cement, translates to a growth of 14.8 per cent in earning of foreign currency and 30.5 per cent in quantity YoY.

Export revenue during July-October 2018 rose by 21.3 per cent to US$104.33m, exporting 2.39Mt of cement, compared to US$86m from exporting 1.7Mt in July-October 2017.

The growth in Pakistani rupees stood at 44.7 per cent to PKR13bn during this period, but the value in dollars fell from US$50.48/t to US$43.54/t in the first four months of current fiscal year.

In a comment, Elixir Securities Pakistan stated that the improvement in exports is due to expansions by Lucky Cement, Attock Cement (ACPL) and DG Khan Cement, as these players have started to divert their excess capacity towards lower priced exports.