LAHORE : During the first four months of current fiscal year, cement dispatches in the country stood at 11.398 million tons against dispatches of 10.981 million tons during the same period of last fiscal year, depicting a growth of 3.79 percent. Domestic sales during this period were 9.370 million tons against 8.192 million tons during July-Oct 2014. Domestic sales during first four months of current fiscal year increased by 14.38 percent, this is one of the fastest growth in domestic cement consumption in last eight years. However in the same period, exports were only 2.028 million tons against 2.790 million tons during the same period last year showing massive decline of 27.31 percent. This decline in exports has limited the growth of the cement industry to only 3.79 percent during July 15 to Oct 15 period.
North based mills dispatched 7.803 million tons to the domestic markets during July to October 15 that was 13.65 percent higher than the dispatches during same period of last fiscal. Exports from north declined during this period to 1.292 million tons i.e. by 25.85 percent over last fiscal year.
In southern region, the mills experienced even more growth in domestic markets as against dispatches of 1.325 million tons during July-Oct 2014, the domestic dispatches increased by 18.21 percent to 1.566 million tons.

However there was a massive reduction in exports that declined by 29.74 percent to 0.736 million tons from 1.048 million tons during the corresponding period last year.