Pakistan’s cement sales dropped by 4.75 percent during February 2022, as the total sales registered in the month were 4.36 million tons compared to 4.57 million tons in the corresponding period last year.
According to data published by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), the local cement sales in the market were 3.95 million tons for February, down by 0.27 percent from 3.96 million tons during the same month in 2021.
Accordingly, the exports of cement fell 34.18 percent from 616,030 tons (2021) to 538,002 tons during the period under review.
The data for the period under review showed that the mill-to-market shipments of cement were down 1.95 percent to 3.214 million tons against 3.278 million tons in the previous year. Contrarily, the mills in the south had domestically shipped 740,595 tons, representing an 8.37 percent growth compared to the sales of 683,384 tons last year.
Cement exports from the southern plants fell 15.1 percent to 364,587 tons in February 2022 compared to 429,435 tons exported during the same period last year. The foreign shipments from the mills in the north astronomically declined by 78.08 percent from 186,595 tons in February 2021 to 40,902 tons in February 2022.
During July-February financial year 2021-22, the northern mills shipped 26.08 million tons domestically, down 2.74 percent from the 26.82 million tons dispatched in the same period the previous year. Northern exports fell 63.3 percent to 598,517 tons from July to February 2022, compared to 1.63 million tons exported during the same time last year.
Similarly, the southern mills increased their domestic shipments by 11.2 percent during the eight months of the ongoing fiscal year, reaching 5.33 million tons against 4.79 million tons in July-February FY21. Exports from the south fell by roughly 20.27 percent, with volumes nosediving to 3.74 million tons in the first eight months of the current fiscal year from 4.7 million tons observed last year.
The aggregate uptake (domestic and exports) from July to February of the current fiscal year was 35.78 million tons, down 5.75 percent from 37.95 million tons in the same period last year. Additional research suggests that the domestic demand for the commodity reduced by 0.63 percent to 31.42 million tons from 31.61 million tons, whereas exports observed a massive 31.35 percent decline from 6.33 million tons to 4.34 million tons.
