(December 11, 2015)
Former President FPCCI Senator Haji Ghulam Ali and President PBIF, President All Karachi Industrial Alliance and First Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday expressed their concern over decline of cement exports.
The cement industry has posted a growth of 15.64 percent in the domestic sales during first quarter of the ongoing fiscal compared to the same period of 2014, they said.
According to the statistics, total dispatches were amounted to 14.77 million tonnes against 14 million tonnes during the corresponding period of last year.
Dispatches to domestic markets during Nov 2015 were 2.843 million tonnes compared with 2.36 million tonnes during the same month of 2014, showing an increase of 20 percent but exports during Nov 2015 were 0.533 million tonnes against 0.66 million tonnes during Nov 2014, showing a decline of 19 percent.
China and EU in response to the opposition to coal in US, have reduced Coal prices by 20 percent and it is now being traded at $49 per tonne which has reduced cost of doing business for industries using coal, said Senator Haji Ghulam Ali and Mian Zahid Hussain.
They said that price of cement can be reduced to benefit those millions of people, homes of which were damaged in earthquakes and thus require repair or reconstruction, as international coal prices will come down soon.
Pakistan’s total cement production stood at 18 million tonnes ten years ago which is now 45 million tonnes which will jump to 53 million tonnes in few years as massive expansion is underway.
Senator Haji Ghulam Ali and Mian Zahid Hussain said that cement companies will witness expansion plans as projects under economic corridor would require a lot of cement and huge foreign exchange is expected.
Cement sector will continue to grow by 5-6 percent annually as it has in the last two decades. However, exports would see a slide of 10 percent in the next year and five percent by 2018-20 therefore the stakeholders should try to find new markets.
