Special Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Cement dispatches declined by 28.6 percent in April 2022. Total cement dispatches during April 2022 were 3.52 million tons against 4.94 million tons dispatched during the same month of last fiscal year, says a message received here Monday.
According to the data released by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), local cement dispatches 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 dispatches 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 dispatched 2.8 million tons cement in domestic markets showing a reduction of 16.93 percent against 3.3 million tons dispatches in April 2021. South based mills dispatched 566,538 tons cement in local markets during April 2022 that was 17.68 percent less compared to the dispatches 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 are also reduced by 84.91 percent to 94,642 tons in April 2022 from 627,091 tons during the same month last year.
During the first ten months of current fiscal year, total cement dispatches (domestic and exports) were 44.3 million tons which is 8.22 percent lower than 48.27 million tons dispatched during the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Further analysis indicate that domestic uptake reduced by 1.84 percent to 39.5 million tons from 40.24 million tons during July-April 2021 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.
North based Mills dispatched 32.73 million tons cement domestically during the first ten months of current fiscal year showing a reduction of 3.73 percent than cement dispatches of 34 million tons during July-April 2021. Exports from North 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 dispatches 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 dispatched 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.
APCMA spokesman expressed serious concerns on continuous decline in industry dispatches due to unstable business and economic situation prevailing in the country.
He emphasized that industry needs immediate relief from the government to reduce the cost of production and to increase its sales in domestic as well as international markets. It is the need of the hour to address industry issues in the coming budget and to formulate policies to increase capacity utilization.
