Pioneer to start producing 4,300 tons cement per day

Pioneer Cement, starting to produce 4,300 tons per day within this week, would help stabilise cement prices in the domestic market. According to industry sources, Pioneer Cement will start producing 4,300 tons cement per day, with the second new line of the company.
Before this, the company's output was 2,350 tons per day and, when the new line would start producing within this week, it would improve the supply in the market, curbing local prices.
Sources said that supply position was improving, as the government has imposed ban on export of cement to Afghanistan and Middle East.
Pioneer Cement during nine months of the current fiscal year exported 105,093 tons cement to Afghanistan and Middle East. The company's local sales were around 494,011 tons during this period. Net sales of the company stood at 599,104 tons, translating into 108 percent of the capacity.
Cement prices are ranging between Rs 325 and Rs 340 per bag and the expansion plans of several companies in the country would certainly help reduce the prices.
Lucky Cement, another company which is already producing 8,000 tons cement per day, would soon start two new lines, one in Karachi and another in its Pezu plant, which would double its capacity to around 16,000 tons per day.
Experts are of the opinion that some more plants have completed their financial close and are expected to expand cement production by the end of this year, which would certainly bridge the supply-and-demand gap.
The ECC's decision to provide subsidy of Rs 60 per bag on imported cement, regardless of its origin, allowing unlimited imports from India by sea and land routes, converted voluntary restraint on exports, particularly to Afghanistan, into a ban till further notice, a statement of the association said last week.
These punitive measures have ostensibly been taken to bring down cement prices but are likely to have serious ill-effects on the health of the industry, particularly in the light of doubling of capacity from 21 million tons to 42 million tons within 18 months, the statement said.