Pakistan's cement and clinker exports have observed a mixed trend in the first eight months of FY21-22. During a presentation, Mohsin Naqvi, group director finance of Maple Leaf Group – the parent company of Maple Leaf Cement Co (MLCF), has stated that the company is not foreseeing robust growth in export given higher sea freight charges. Hence, the negative trend was also reflected in cumulative export data.
The Pakistan cement industry earned US$179.44m in export revenue by dispatching 4.749Mt of cement and clinker overseas in the 8MFY21-22 (July 2021-February 2022), compared to US$183.19m from 5.476Mt of exports in the year-ago period. As a result, the sector saw a slide of 2.1 per cent in dollar terms but reported a double-digit decline of 13.2 per cent in volume during the export period. However, exports valued in Pakistani rupees saw a growth of 3.3 per cent to PKR30.85bn (US$171.7m) during this period.
On the contrary, in February 2022 alone, export revenues increased 7.9 per cent MoM to US$18.52m on the shipment of 433,780t, compared to US$17.15m from 393,607t of exports in January 2022. The quantity increased by 10.2 per cent during this period.
However, when compared with February 2021 earnings of US$19.52m from 537,452t, this represented a drop of 5.1 per cent and 19.3 per cent YoY in value and quantity, respectively.
Pakistan has been exporting clinker/cement to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Madagascar, South Africa, Tanzania and India. The export to India was suspended for the last few years.
