Rains, Eid holidays hit cement demand hard in July

KARACHI: Monsoon rains and the halt to the construction activities due to Eid-ul-Azha holidays during July have badly affected the cement demand, as the sector posted a negative growth of 19.41 per cent.

The total cement dispatched in July stood at 3.899 million tonnes against 4.838 million tonnes during July 2020.

Domestic dispatches dropped to 3.446 million tonnes in July 2021 from 3.953 million tonnes in July 2020, showing a reduction of 12.8 per cent.

The cement exports showed a substantial reduction of 49 per cent, as the country exported only 452,776 tonnes during July 2021, compared with 885,255 tonnes during July 2020.

Analysis of the zone-wise demand revealed that the major decline in domestic cement consumption was in the Northern Region of the country where only 2.892 million tonnes of cement was consumed in July 2021, compared with 3.435 million tonnes in July 2020, showing a fall of 15.81 per cent.

However, the exports from the Northern Region increased 10.42 per cent to 135,618 tonnes in July 2021 from 122,823 tonnes in July 2020.

Mills based in South dispatched 554,442 tonnes of cement for domestic markets during July 2021 that was 7.07 per cent higher than the dispatches of 517,850 tonnes in the corresponding month of the last fiscal year.

The cement exports from South experienced a whopping dip of 58.40 per cent, as the quantities dropped to 317,159 tonnes from 762,432 tonnes in July 2020.

A spokesman for the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) expressed concerns over the slide in the demand.

He was; however, hopeful that the cement industry will regain its growth momentum in the coming months mainly due to the pro-government policies related to the construction sector.

“The government’s sponsored PSDP projects are in full swing where upfront development funds were released,” he added.

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