Cement dispatches slightly declined in April 2024. Total Cement dispatches during April 2024 were 2.943 million tons, compared to 2.951 Million Tons dispatched during the last fiscal year. According to the data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association, local cement dispatches by the industry during April 2024 were 2.328 million tons compared to 2.531 million tons in April 2023, showing a decline of 7.99%. On the other hand, export dispatch rose by 45.96% as the volumes increased from 420,857 tons in April 2023 to 614,264 tons in April 2024.

In April 2024, North-based cement mills dispatched 2.088 million tons of cement, a decline of 4.79% compared to 2.193 million tons dispatched in April 2023. South-based mills dispatched 854,911 tons of cement in April 2024, 12.71% more than the 758,510 tons in April 2023.

North-based cement mills dispatched 1.942 million tons of cement in domestic markets in April 2024, a decline of 7.91% compared to the 2.109 million tons dispatched in April 2023. South-based mills dispatched 386,783 tons of cement in local markets during April 2024, 8.36% less than the 422,071 tons dispatched in April 2023.

Exports from North-based mills increased by 73.11%, from 84,418 tons in April 2023 to 146,136 tons in April 2024. Exports from the South also increased by 39.14%, to 468,128 tons in April 2024 from 336,439 tons in the same month last year.

During the first ten months of the current fiscal year, total cement dispatches (domestic and exports) were 37.447 million tons, which is 2.45% higher than the 36.551 million tons dispatched during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year. Domestic dispatches during this period were 31.732 million tons against 33.095 million tons during the same period the previous year, showing a reduction of 4.12%. Export dispatches showed healthy growth by 65.35% as the volumes increased to 5.715 million tons during the first ten months of the current fiscal year compared to 3.457 million tons of exports during the last fiscal year.

North-based Mills dispatched 26.178 million tons of cement domestically during the first ten months of the current fiscal year, showing a reduction of 3.60% from cement dispatches of 27.156 million tons during July 2022-April 2023. Exports from the North increased by 37.48% per cent to 1.186 million tons during July 2023-April 2024 compared with 862,855 tons exported during the same period last year. Total dispatches by North-based Mills reduced by 2.34% to 27.364 million tons during the first ten months of the current financial year from 28.019 million tons during the same period of last financial year.

Domestic dispatches by South-based Mills from July 2023 to April 2024 were 5.553 million tons, showing a reduction of 6.48% over 5.938 million tons of cement dispatched during the same period of last fiscal year. Exports from the South massively increased by 74.62% to 4.529 million tons during July 2023-April 2024 compared with 2.594 million tons exported during the same period last year. Total dispatches by South-based Mills increased by 18.17% to 10.082 million tons during the first ten months of the current financial year from 8.532 million tons during the last financial year.

An All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association spokesman urged the government to announce industry-friendly measures in the upcoming budget to boost the country’s construction activities. He added that we need to increase our capacity utilisation to bring in economies of scale and control our operations cost to reduce the overall impact on the end consumer.