LAHORE - Cement sector showed excellent growth of 49.86 per cent in May 2021. Total cement dispatches during May 2021 were 3.947 million tonnes against 2.634 million tonnes dispatched during the same month of last fiscal year. 
According to the data released by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association, domestic cement dispatches during the month of May 2021 increased to 3.201 million tonnes from 2.271 million tonnes in May 2020, depicting a healthy increase of 40.95 per cent. Exports also massively increased by 105.56 per cent, from 363,174 tonnes in May 2020 to 746,550 tonnes in May 2021.
During May 2021, the North based cement mills dispatched 2.713 million tonnes cement in local markets showing an increase of 35.55  per cent over 2.001 million tonnes dispatches in May 2020. 
South based mills dispatched 487,311 tonnes cement in domestic markets during May 2021 registering a robust increase of 81.15% compared to the dispatches of 269,003 tonnes in May 2020. Exports from North based mills that, due to Covid-19 issues, were just 7,520 tonnes in May 2020 showed healthy increase to 203,625 tonnes in May 2021. 
Exports from South also increased by 52.66 per cent to 542,925 tonnes in May 2021 from 355,654 tonnes during the same month last year.
During the first 11 months of this fiscal year, total cement dispatches (domestic and exports) were 52.222 million tonnes which is 20.91  per cent higher than 43.189 million tonnes of cement dispatched during the corresponding period of last fiscal year. A spokesman of APCMA appealed to the government to abolish the FED and reduce other duties and taxes in order to provide opportunity to the manufacturers to control their cost of production and further optimize/expand their plant that will in turn help generate more employment and revenues for the government.