LAHORE: Cement despatches (both domestic and exports) during the first 10 months of current financial year 2021-22 remained 44.3 million tons which is 8.22 percent lower than 48.27 million tons despatched during the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Further analysis of the data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) on Monday indicates that domestic uptake reduced by 1.84 percent to 39.5 million tons from 40.24 million tons during July-April 2021-2022 whereas exports during the same period declined by a massive 40.19 percent to 4.8 million tons from 8.02 million tons during July-April 2021-2022.

During the last month (April 2022), cement despatches continued decline and it was registered at 28.6 percent. Total cement despatches during April 2022 were 3.52 million tons against 4.94 million tons despatched during the same month of last fiscal year.

Local cement despatches by the industry during the month of April 2022 were 3.37 million tons compared to 4.06 million tons in April 2021, showing reduction by 17.06 percent. Exports despatches also suffered massive decline by 82.15 percent as the volumes reduced from 877,163 tons in April 2021 to 156,613 tons in April 2022.

In April 2022, North based cement mills despatched 2.8 million tons cement in domestic markets showing a reduction of 16.93 percent against 3.3 million tons despatches in April 2021. South based mills despatched 566,538 tons cement in local markets during April 2022 that was 17.68 percent less compared to the despatches of 688,239 tons during April 2021.

Exports from North based mills massively declined by 75.22 percent as the quantities reduced from 250,072 tons in April 2021 to 61,971 tons in April 2022. Exports from South based cement mills also reduced by 84.91 percent to 94,642 tons in April 2022 from 627,091 tons during the same month last year.

North based mills despatched 32.73 million tons cement domestically during the first ten months of current fiscal year showing a reduction of 3.73 percent than cement despatches of 34 million tons during July-April 2021. Exports from North based mills declined by 65.71 percent to 741,072 tons during July-April 2022 compared with 2.16 million tons exported during the same period last year.

Domestic despatches by South based mills during July-April 2022 were 6.77 million tons showing an increase of 8.46 percent over 6.24 million tons cement despatched during the same period of last fiscal year.

There was however substantial decline of around 30.79 percent in exports from South zone as the volumes reduced to 4.05 million tons in the first ten months of current fiscal year from 5.86 million tons during corresponding period of last fiscal year.

A spokesman of All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association expressed serious concerns on continuous decline in industry despatches due to unstable business and economic situation prevailing in the country.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022