KARACHI, April 2: Cement sales for the month of March this year crossed over 2.1 million tons, which represent improvement over already high dispatches figure of 1.96 million tons a month earlier (in February), industry sources said on Monday.

The official figures by the All-Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (Apcma) are expected to be released on Tuesday morning. In Feb 2007, local sales depicted a growth of 15 per cent over same month of last year, while exports grew by a massive 108 per cent to stand at 320k tons for the month. The February export numbers were highest-ever for any single month.

Rising exports and increasing new markets are of major interest to the producers. Besides the captive market of Afghanistan, cement was being shipped to a number of new destinations, including Abu Dhabi (where mega projects were under construction to compete with Dubai), Yemen, Morocco, Muscat, Iraq, Dubai and finally to India.

“Importers in Sri Lanka have also shown interest in buying about 30,000 tons of cement every month from Pakistan”, writes Yasir Syed, analyst at AKD Securities in his report on Monday.

Sri Lanka currently imports cement mainly from India and with the market in that country facing a shortage, Pakistani cement producers could find it relatively easier to enter the Sri Lankan market as well.

One sector watcher said that the current capacity utilisation of the industry was at a ‘comfortable level’; the July-February 2006-07 utilisation being at 76 per cent.

Analyst Yasir Syed visualised dispatch growth, which for 8mFY07 was at 32 per cent, to “remain strong as the April-September period is the peak season for construction activity in the country”.

He mentioned the current price of cement in the North to range between Rs230 to 240 per bag and in the South at average of Rs230 to 243 per bag.