KARACHI, Oct 2: Sales of cement for the first quarter July-Sept 2007 increased 35 per cent to 7.29 million tons, compared with 5.42 million tons in the corresponding quarter of last year.

Figures released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers (APCMA) on Tuesday evidenced a hefty 131 per cent increase in export of cement alone in September, which stood at 0.55 million tons, compared with 0.24 million tons in September 2006.

“Exports to India during September 2007 which was the first month of the cement dispatches to that country stood at 11,300 tons,” says Shahzad Ahmed, Secretary General of APCMA. India had issued BIS certification to five companies: Fecto, Lucky, D.G Khan; Maple Leaf and Pakistan Cement.

The APCMA official observed that total exports by sea during September stood at 0.29 million tons. Aggregate exports (sea, road and rail) for the quarter July-Sept rose 137 per cent to 1.57 million tons, from 0.66 million tons in the similar three months of 2006. Djibouti was identified as a major destination for Pakistani cement. In his morning report on Tuesday, Muhammad Rehan Khan, analyst at First Capital stated that as per recent reports, Russia was also eyeing imports from Pakistan.

Aggregate cement dispatches during September increased 22 per cent to 2.35 million tons, from 1.93 million tons in the same month last year. On month-on-month basis, sales decreased 6.7 per cent from 2.54 million tons of sale the previous month (August).

Analyst Bilal Hameed at JS Global thought that the decline was due to the month of Ramazan when there is slowdown in construction activity. “So we believe that after Ramazan cement sales will pick up its growth momentum”, says the analyst.