Economic slowdown hurts cement exports: Daily Times

By Moonis Ahmed

KARACHI: The economic slowdown around the world has begun to hit Pakistan’s cement industry, as its exports in April were lower by 12 percent than that recorded in March.

Exports dropped to one million tonnes from 1.1 million tonnes in March 2009.

According to the latest numbers released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), exports were up 51 percent year-on-year in first ten months of the current fiscal year.

Nevertheless, the number of 975,000 tonnes witnessed last month was still encouraging when compared with the monthly average of 880,000 tons recorded during the first nine months. Exports now constitute 36 percent of total dispatches (year-on-year).

Country’s cement exports had witnessed a healthy growth of 140 percent to all-time high level of 4.2611 million tonnes in the first eight months of last fiscal year. But the industry is now witnessing downward trend as the global economic slowdown has begun to impact it.

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