Cement sales increase 40pc YoY in April: APCMA

ISLAMABAD: The cement sector posted a robust growth of 40.41 percent in April 2021 on a year-on-year (YoY) basis with total cement dispatches increasing from 3.52 million tonnes to 4.943 million tonnes.
According to the data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), local cement dispatches during the month of April 2021 increased to 4.066 million tonnes from 3.271 million tons in April 2020, showing a healthy increase of 24.29 percent. Exports also increased significantly by 252 percent, from 249,127 tonnes in April 2020 to 877,163 tonnes in April 2021.
In April 2021, the North-based cement mills dispatched 3.377 million tonnes of cement in domestic markets showing an increase of 15.33 percent over 2.928 million tonnes dispatches in April 2020. South-based mills dispatched 688,239 tonnes of cement in local markets during April 2020 registering a robust increase of 100% compared to the dispatches of 342,594 tonnes in April 2020.
Exports from North-based mills registered an enormous increase of 155 times as the volumes increased from just 1,609 tonnes in April 2020 to 250,072 tonnes in April 2021. Exports from the South also increased by 153.35 percent to 627,091 tonnes in April 2021 from 247,519 tonnes during the same month last year.
During the first ten months of this fiscal year, total cement dispatches (domestic and exports) were 48.274 million tonnes which were 19.03 percent higher than 40.555 million tonnes of cement dispatched during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.
During July 20 to April 21, local dispatches increased by 18.87 percent to 40.249 million tonnes from 33.859 million tonnes in the same period last year. Exports increased from 6.696 million tonnes during the first 10 months of the last fiscal to 8.025 million tonnes during July 20 to April 21, showing a growth of 19.84 percent.
During the first 10 months of the current fiscal year, north-based mills dispatched 34.008 million tonnes of cement for domestic consumption that was 17.51 percent higher compared to the dispatches during the same period last fiscal that stood at 28.941 million tonnes. Exports from North were 2.161 million tonnes showing an increase of 12.75 percent over exports of 1.916 million tons during the same period of last fiscal year.
Local dispatches from South-based mills were 6.241 million tonnes during the first ten months of the current fiscal year which was 26.92 percent higher than 4.917 million tonnes dispatched during the corresponding period of last fiscal year. The exports from the South recorded 5.863 million tonnes registering an increase of 22.69 percent over exports of 4.779 million tonnes during the same period last year.
A spokesman of APCMA said that despite this growth, the industry is operating in a very tough scenario due to a continuous rise in prices of major inputs. He requested the government to treat the cement sector at par with other exporting sectors and rationalise electricity tariff and import levies on coal, which are the mains cost elements of the cement sector. – TLTP