April 27, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 09, 1428

Karachi, April 26: Lucky Cement consignment of a small quantity exported to India in mid-March has been released by the authorities and handed over to the importer while clearance and release of the remaining 125 tons dispatched in April had entered ‘advanced stage’, Mr Abid Ganatra, finance director at Lucky Cement said on Thursday.

The company had exported 150 tons of cement in five containers, which had been detained at the Nhava Sheva Port for want of quality clearance certificate from Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

“The process has started moving as the members of BIS arrived in Mumbai on Thursday to inspect the samples,” the Lucky finance director said. He admitted that it was small quantity but said that the dispatch was a ‘test case’ for larger exports, which would follow.

He said that Pakistan’s ministry of commerce and Indian industry minister had intervened to settle the issue of the held-up consignment. He particularly highlighted the role of Mr Panday, an official at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.

Indian importers in Mumbai had also threatened to divert consignment to other countries unless a clearance was issued quickly for fear of deterioration of quality of the commodity due to get moisture at the port.

India was staring at a wide gap of 10 to 12 million tons as the country expected to face a shortfall of 15 per cent this year against its production capacity of 165 million tons.

Earlier D.G. Khan Cement had exported a consignment of 1,500 tons through Gujarat's Mundra Port. Pakistani cement exporters are tapping new markets with increasing exports. But after the hold up of Lucky consignment at Nhava Sheva Port, Pakistan’s cement producers had called a halt to exports to India until the clearance of the already dispatched cargo.

Analysts say that against the 30 million tons capacity, Pakistan is still in surplus of 6 million tons and the industry is operating at 76 per cent utilisation.

The capacity would increase substantially in the next couple of months after the commissioning of expansions by D.G. Khan and Maple Leaf, all of which would be able to stabilise prices in the local markets as well, analysts hope.