Karachi: Domestic uptake of cement continued to depict a positive trend, increasing by eight per cent during the first 10 months of this fiscal year while exports declined by nine per cent during the same period.
A total of 29 million tonnes of cement was despatched during July-April 2014-15 as against 28 million tonnes during the same period in the last fiscal year owing to rising domestic demand, said a spokesman for All-Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA).
Cement despatches to domestic markets during April 2015 increased by 4.57 per cent to 2.65 million tonnes compared with 2.54m tonnes during same month last year.
Exports during April were 640,000 tonnes against 672,000 tonnes during April 2014, down by 4.72pc. Total despatches in April 2015 were 3.29m tonnes compared to 3.21m tonnes during the same month last year, up by 2.62pc.
The cement industry is still operating at a little over 76pc capacity which translates into idle capacity of 8.94m tonnes, the spokesman said. Illegal import of commodity from Iran in Balochistan and tax evasions at import stage through mis-declarations have become a major concern for stakeholders.
The APCMA urged the government to take effective steps to stop illegal import of Iranian cement and protect local industry by including the commodity in negative list of import items so that the country’s surplus production capacity can be utilised to the maximum extent.
