Cement sales, exports surge to all-time high in October

LAHORE: Cement sales and exports continued their run for double-digit growth in October with aggregate volume touching another high of 5.74 million tons during the month, official data showed on Wednesday.

In October, cement sales increased 15.8 percent year-on-year to 4.86 million tons. That was compared with 4.19 million tons in October last year. Cement exports increased to 875,266 tons from 784,433 tons, showing 11.6 percent growth, according to the data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association.

The association said the recent construction sector’s incentives announced by the government helped cement industry recover from slowdown caused by growth contraction and aggravated by coronavirus lockdown.

However, cement is subject to very high taxes including federal excise duty of Rs1,500 per ton equivalent to Rs75 per bag, said the association. Government must abolish federal excise duty as this is not a luxury product, it said.

“Cement consumption could increase further if the government rationalises duties and taxes and withdraw excise duty,” said the association’s spokesman. “The government would generate higher revenue even with reduced taxes when cement sales increases.

In the north region, domestic cement dispatches increased 15.5 percent to 4.17 million tons in October 2020 from 3.61 million tons in October 2019. Further, exports from the north region increased 8.5 percent to 283,000 tons from 261,000 tons.

The southern region also posted the positive growth. The domestic cement dispatches rose 17.7 percent to 695,221 tons from 590,690 tons. Further, the exports from the South continued to grow and increased 13.1 percent to 591,877 tons from 523,353 tons.

In the first four months of the current fiscal year, 19.3 million tons of cement has been dispatched, 19.9 percent higher than the first four months of the last fiscal year.

Total cement dispatches during the first four months of current fiscal year increased from 16.1 million. Domestic dispatches registered a healthy increase of 17.9 percent from 13.3 million tons to 15.7 million tons. Exports also showed encouraging growth increasing 29.2 percent from 2.8 million tons to 3.6 million tons.

In the South region, domestic sales growth remained healthy at 12.1 percent as consumption in the first four months increased from 1.86 million tons to 2.09 million tons. The exports from South posted a growth of 46.6 percent in the first four months of this fiscal, which increased to 2.71 million tons from 1.85 million tons.