Zubair Qureshi
Islamabad
Pakistan’s cement sector posted growth of 11.18 percent in December 2020 as compared to December 2019. Total Cement dispatches during December 2020 were 4.788 million tons against 4.306 Million Tons dispatched during the same month of last fiscal year.
According to the data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturing Association (APCMA), local cement dispatches in the month of December increased to 4.154 million tons compared to 3.536 million tons in December 2019, depicting an increase of 17.47 percent. However, a second consecutive drop was witnessed in cement exports. The exports dropped from 769,986 tons in December 2019 to 633,431 tons in December 2020.
In the north region, domestic cement dispatches increased by 17.09 percent to 3.471 million tons during December 2020 from 2.964 million tons in December 2019. Exports from the north decreased by 40.52 percent to 0.123 million tons in December 2020 from 0.206 million tons in December 2019.
In the south region, domestic cement dispatches increased by 19.47 percent to 682,854 tons during December 2020 from 571,558 tons in December 2019. Exports from south decreased by 9.36 percent to 0.510 million tons in December 2020 from 0.563 million tons in December 2019.
During the first six months of current fiscal year, total cement dispatches of the country grew by 15.66 percent from 24.751 million tons in July-Dec 2019 to 28.628 million tons in July-Dec 2020.
Local dispatches have increased by 15.89 percent in July-Dec 2020to 23.610 million tons from 20.373 million tons in July-Dec 2019. Exports also increased from 4.377 million tons in July-Dec 2019 to 5.017 million tons in July-Dec 2020 showing a growth of 14.63 percent.
