All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers' Association (APCMA) has issued dispatches data for the month of February and 8M cumulative data for July 2019-February 2020. The country's cement sector posted growth of 33.9 per cent in February 2020 and 10 per cent in 8MFY19-20.

In February total dispatches increased to 4.489Mt, an increase of 33.9 per cent from 3.352Mt in the same month last year. Out of this, domestic consumption increased by 31.4 per cent to 3.736Mt in February 2020 from 2.843Mt (February 2019) while exports registered an impressive increase of 48.2 per cent from 0.508Mt in February 2019 to 0.753Mt (February 2020).
 
Northern-based mills dispatched 3.173Mt locally, which was almost 46 per cent higher than the dispatches of 2.175Mt during the corresponding month of last fiscal year. Exports from the northern-based mills also increased in February 2020 by 23 per cent to 0.202Mt, from 0.165Mt in February 2019.
 
The southern region of the country reported a decline in domestic consumption by 16 per cent, as it fell from 0.669Mt in February 2019 to 0.562Mt in February 2020. However, exports surged by 60 per cent to 0.551Mt in February 2020 last month, as compared to 0.343Mt in February 2019.
 
8MFY19-20 results
Cement dispatches during this period stood at 33.313Mt, depicting a growth of over 10 per cent when compared with total dispatches of 30.253Mt during the corresponding period of last fiscal.
 
However, despite robust growth, domestic consumption of the commodity remained lopsided with demand in the northern region reaching historic heights with cumulative dispatches of 23.263Mt in the July-February period, 15.5 per cent higher than 20.136Mt in the same period last year. In contrast demand in the southern region declined from 5.467Mt in July 2018-February 2019 period to 4.111Mt during same period this year, representing a YoY decline of 24.8 per cent.
 
Exports shown an opposite pattern where the exports nominally declined for northern-based mills from 1.857Mt in the first eight months of the previous financial year to 1.808Mt in the 8MFY19-20. However, the exports from the south zone jumped from 2.792Mt in July 2018-February 2019 to 4.131Mt during July-February 2019-20, representing a 49.7 per cent rise.

The spokesperson of APCMA said that cement capacity has increased to 64Mta for the FY2019-20 and the industry has been able to utilise only 78.5 per cent of its current installed capacity to date with over 9.1Mta idle capacity.