KARACHI: Domestic cement sales continued to face a downward trend owing to slowdown in construction activities, with dispatches during October and the July-October period shrinking by 0.49 per cent and 15pc, respectively, compared to the same period last year.

According to data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufa­cturers Assoc­iation (APC­MA), cement dispatches last month were 3.276 million tonnes while the figure for October last year 3.292m tonnes.

On the other hand, exports rose by 51.29pc — from 714,325 tonnes in October last year to 1.080m tonnes last month. Total cement dispatches (local and exports) during Oct 2024 clocked in at 4.357m tones, as against 4.006m tonnes during the same month of the last fiscal year — a jump of 8.74pc.

Healthy exports were the basic reason for the overall increase as local dispatches showed fell dur­ing October 2024, an APCM­A spokesperson said.

During the fourth quarter of FY25, total cement dispatches were 14.633m tonnes — an eight per cent fall over 15.89m tonnes during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

Domestic dispatches during this period were 11.410m tones, as against 13.426m tonnes during the same period of 4MFY24, down by 15pc.

Exports were 31pc higher as the volumes rose to 3.223m tonnes during the first four months of the current fiscal year, compared to 2.466mn tonnes during the same period of the previous year.

Nasheed Malik of Top Line Securities said total cement capacity utilisation last month was estimated at 60pc versus 57pc in September 2024 and 58pc in October 2023.

Average retail price in October 2024 fell by one per cent month on month in the country’s northern region and stayed flat in the south, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.

Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2024