KARACHI: Rains and Eidul Azha holidays cast gloom on construction activities which led to a 13 per cent drop in local cement sales in July to 3.446 million tonnes from 3.953m tonnes in the same month last year.

Exports also dropped by 49pc last month to 452,776 tonnes from 885,255 tonnes in July 2020.

As a result of negative trend in domestic and exports dispatches, the overall growth in the cement sector suffered 19.41pc drop in total dispatches in July 2021 to 3.899 tonnes from 4.838m tonnes in July 2020, figures released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) on Tuesday revealed.

Major decline in domestic cement consumption was recorded in North to only 2.892m tonnes in July compared to 3.435m tonnes in the period in 2020 – down 13pc. However, exports from the northern region increased by 10.42pc to 135,618 tonnes in July 2021 from 122,823 tonnes in July 2020.

Mills based in South dispatched 554,442 tonnes for domestic markets during July 2021, depicting a rise of seven per cent than the dispatches of 517,850 tonnes in the corresponding month of last fiscal. Exports from South fell by a whopping 58.40pc to 317,159 tonnes from 762,432 tonnes in July 2020.

The APCMA spokesman was hopeful that cement industry would regain its growth momentum in the coming months mainly due to pro-government policies related to the construction sector.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2021