LAHORE - The first month of the new fiscal year started on a sour note for the cement sector as exports to Afghanistan declined by 10.37 per cent to 455,897 tons in July 2012 while exports to India diped by 12.77 per cent to 54,233 tons. In the same way, exports to other destinations through sea also reduced by 6.16 per cent to 244,880 tons. Overall, industry posted a decline of 1.64 percent in its despatches compared with the despatches achieved in last year (July 2011).
A spokesman of All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association said that the local cement despatches increased nominally by 1.47 percent in July 2012 to 2,054,213 tons compared with 2,024,407 tons in July 2011. However, he added there was a massive decline in exports to all destinations. The overall exports declined by 9.23 percent. In July 2011 the total cement exports were 831,785 tons that declined in July 2012 to 755,010 tons.
He said electricity crisis and rains badly affected the domestic market in Punjab and KP. Despatches from the North based mills increased by only 0.71 percent while the despatches of the South based mills registered an increase of 4.22 percent. He said sluggish construction activities in Northern region are a source of concern for the cement industry because bulk of the capacity is located in the North.
 The spokesman said on the export side the Southern mills lost 17.84 percent exports in July 2012 compared with the corresponding period last year. In fact he added the South is losing the export markets at an alarming pace during past six months. He said cement exports of North based mills declined by 7.02 percent mainly because of high freight cost for export by sea.