KARACHI: Cement sales posted a growth of 5.51 per cent at 22.78 million tonnes during the first eight months of this fiscal year against 21.59m tonnes in the same period last year.

However, its export fell 5.52pc to 5 million tonnes during July-Feb 2014-15 as compared to 5.292m tonnes in the same period last year.

Overall domestic consumption increased by 9.12pc to 17.782m tonnes from 16.296m tonnes during the period under review.

The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) spokesman said on Friday that huge quantities of Iranian cement was being imported with evasion of duty badly affecting local industry.

In February 2015, local sales of cement posted healthy growth of 7pc while exports showed substantial decline by 21.08pc, resulting in an overall nominal growth of 0.97pc compared to the same month last year.

The overall domestic and exports volumes were 2,297,568 tonnes and 460,510 tonnes, respectively, compared to 2,148,083 tonnes and 583,480 tonnes in February 2014.

Published in Dawn March 7th , 2015

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