Pakistan's cement industry showed encouraging performance in January 2020. As per the data released by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers' Association (APCMA), domestic consumption increased by six per cent to 3.265Mt in January 2020 from 3.082Mt in January 2019, while the exports registered another impressive growth of 39.5 per cent from 0.579Mt in January 2019 to 0.808Mt in January 2020.

Therefore, the cement sector continued to post growth in January as its total dispatches increased to 4.074Mt, a rise of 11.3 per cent from 3.662Mt during the same month last year. The rise was attributed to domestic growth being entirely led by the north-based plants while the exports were led by mills based in south, said an association spokesperson.

Northern region
North-based mills dispatched 2.684Mt locally, almost 11.3 per cent higher than the dispatches of 2.371Mt during the corresponding month of last fiscal. In exports the north-based production continued to show decline as exports fell by 13.6 per cent with exports of 0.186Mt in January 2020 compared with exports of 0.215Mt in January 2019.

Southern region
In the sSouth of the country, the domestic consumption declined appreciably by 18.23 per cent from 0.711Mt in January 2019 to 0.581Mt in January 2020. However, exports surged by 70.84 pe rcent to 0.623Mt from 0.364Mt in January 2019.

Total dispatches in 7MFY20
In the first seven months of this fiscal (July – January 2020), the cement dispatches in the country increased by 7.15 per cent to 28.824Mt against 26.9Mt dispatched during the same period last year. The domestic consumption registered an increase of only 3.86 per cent to 23.638Mt that was 22.759Mt in the same period last year, while exports increased by over 25.23 per cent to 5.186Mt from 4.141Mt in the same period last year.

The APCMA appealled to the government to start working on the housing schemes and other construction activities as many job opportunities in not only the cement sector, but the whole construction industry are on the line in the current economic scenario.

Currently, the cement production capacity reached 69.54Mt, while domestic dispatches would be around 41Mt, leaving a huge surplus of 28.54Mt. Therefore, it is imperative that consumption of cement increases to cover the huge surplus and save the industry from total collapse.