The cement exports have registered a huge decline of 29.17% annually in June 2019 to $11.56 million against the exports of $16.32 million of June 2018.
According to the to the latest data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), on monthly basis, the exports of cement also reported a drop of 32.22% in June 2019 compared to the exports of $17.050 million in May 2019.
Industry experts said that the exports of cement, after showing a positive growth, have started turning down for the last couple of months, as it had reported a decline of almost 18 percent annually in May 2019 to record at $17.05 million compared to the exports of $20.78 million in May 2018. The cement exports from the country had recorded at $ 243.118 million during July-April (2018-19) against the exports of $ 185.741 million during July-April (2017-18).
However, in terms of quantity, the export of the cement witnessed an increase of 40.41 percent from 4,562,634 metric tons to 6,406,418 metric ton.
Data shows that the exports of cement from the country during the financial year 2018-19 witnessed increase of 21.94 percent as compared to the corresponding period of last Year.
The cement exports from the country were recorded at $271.73 million during July-June (2018-19) against the exports of $ 222.84 million during July-June (2017-18), showing growth of 21.94 percent.
On year-on-year basis, the overall merchandize exports during the period under review declined by 8.77 per cent, from $1.88 billion in June 2018 to $1.71 billion in June 2019 while the exports witnessed a drop of one percent by falling from $23.22 billion during last year to $22.97 billion during the ongoing fiscal year.
According to the industry experts, the cement sector has been under pressure in this fiscal year as development expenditure has been slashed. Moreover, in 2019 Pakistan’s cement industry continued to show poor performance. Cement consumption is usually at its height in third quarter as construction activities peak with the pleasant weather and urgency in completing government development works within the financial year. However, total dispatches in this period continued to decline.
