September 5, 2024: Heavy taxation and subsequent rise in cement prices have caused a sharp decline in demand, leading to a 25.68% drop in cement dispatches in August 2024. According to data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), cement dispatches totalled 3.366 million tons in August 2024, compared to 4.528 million tons during the same period last year.
Local cement dispatches by the industry fell by 27.54%, with 2.752 million tons dispatched in August 2024, down from 3.798 million tons in August 2023. Export dispatches also saw a decline of 16%, with volumes falling from 730,755 tons in August 2023 to 613,857 tons in August 2024.
The APCMA report further breaks down the data by region. Cement mills in the northern region dispatched 2.530 million tons in August 2024, marking a 22.20% decline from 3.252 million tons in August 2023. Meanwhile, southern cement mills dispatched 835,245 tons, a 34.54% drop compared to 1.276 million tons dispatched in August 2023.
Domestic dispatches from northern mills were also hit hard, falling by 24.70% to 2.325 million tons in August 2024, down from 3.088 million tons in August 2023. Southern mills saw an even steeper decline in domestic dispatches, which fell by 39.91%, from 709,443 tons in August 2023 to 426,289 tons in August 2024.
Despite the overall decline, exports from northern mills saw an increase of 24.79%, rising from 164,195 tons in August 2023 to 204,901 tons in August 2024. However, southern mills experienced a sharp reduction in exports, with a 27.82% drop to 408,956 tons in August 2024, compared to 566,560 tons in August 2023.
For the first two months of the current fiscal year, total cement dispatches (both domestic and exports) amounted to 6.375 million tons, reflecting a 17.82% decrease compared to 7.758 million tons during the same period last year. Domestic dispatches dropped by 20.73%, reaching 5.214 million tons, while export dispatches saw a slight reduction of 1.65%, with volumes decreasing to 1.161 million tons from 1.181 million tons during the same period last year.
Northern mills dispatched 4.418 million tons of cement domestically in the first two months of the fiscal year, representing an 18.78% reduction compared to 5.440 million tons during the same period in 2023. Exports from northern mills increased by 6.23%, reaching 303,821 tons in July-August 2024, compared to 286,009 tons in the previous year.
Meanwhile, domestic dispatches from southern mills fell by 30.02% during July-August 2024, totaling 795,846 tons, compared to 1.137 million tons in the same period last year. Exports from southern mills also declined by 4.17%, with 857,198 tons dispatched in the first two months of the fiscal year, down from 894,537 tons in the same period last year.
An APCMA spokesperson stated that the cement industry has faced a continuous negative trend for the past 12 months due to heavy taxes and economic uncertainty. The industry also suffered from the impact of monsoon rains on construction activities.
“The current budget has doubled the excise on cement along with sharp increases in other federal and provincial taxes,” the spokesperson said. “The construction sector is suffering, and the decline in domestic offtake is hurting employment for both skilled and unskilled labor. We urge the government to reconsider these taxation measures to help the cement industry recover and ease the pressure on the struggling economy.”
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