LAHORE - The local cement manufacturers, which are still facing non-tariff barriers while exporting cement to India, have reported to witness a sharp demand from the Indian Punjab, causing an increase of around 0.2 million tons in cement export annually to about 0.7 million tons in fiscal year 2014.
Industry sources said that the cement exports to the rival country was continued to drop mainly due to NTBs imposed by the Indian authorities, as the export to India dropped to 0.5 million tons in 2013 after hitting the export of 0.8 million tons in 2008.
They said that better logistic services and comfortable transportation of cement through Wagha border has significantly helped raise the volume of cement exports from Pakistan to India, as major exports to India was made through land route by the cement units located in Punjab and KPK.  Pakistan is producing high quality cement and its superiority was also confirmed by tests of accredited Indian labs like Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
But the procedure for obtaining quality assurance certificate is still complicated that should be simplified by the Indian authorities, they suggested.
Around 8 cement plants are exporting cement to India through trucks at price of about $50 per ton. The exporters said that they are expecting further growth in future if the process is further eased.  Country’s 98 percent of cement is sent through land route to Indian Punjab cities Amritsar and Ludhiana while the remaining 2 percent is exported through sea due to lower demand in other states of India. “Our cement is cost effective for buyers of Indian Punjab where the total import demand from Pakistan is over 2 million tons.  We can easily penetrate in this market with major market share if Non-Tariff Barriers are removed.”