AIRLINK 175.55 Decreased By ▼ -2.01 (-1.13%)
BOP 11.01 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.36%)
CNERGY 8.29 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (1.47%)
FCCL 47.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-0.19%)
FFL 16.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.62%)
FLYNG 27.31 Decreased By ▼ -0.04 (-0.15%)
HUBC 142.32 Decreased By ▼ -4.59 (-3.12%)
HUMNL 13.30 Decreased By ▼ -0.21 (-1.55%)
KEL 4.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.06 (-1.33%)
KOSM 5.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.17%)
MLCF 61.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.22 (-0.35%)
OGDC 226.77 Decreased By ▼ -7.91 (-3.37%)
PACE 5.77 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.52%)
PAEL 44.80 Decreased By ▼ -1.61 (-3.47%)
PIAHCLA 17.88 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-1.32%)
PIBTL 10.47 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.95%)
POWER 12.02 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.25%)
PPL 185.92 Decreased By ▼ -5.88 (-3.07%)
PRL 37.16 Decreased By ▼ -0.16 (-0.43%)
PTC 24.05 Increased By ▲ 0.85 (3.66%)
SEARL 100.29 Decreased By ▼ -0.60 (-0.59%)
SILK 1.15 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
SSGC 38.51 Decreased By ▼ -1.20 (-3.02%)
SYM 14.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-1.86%)
TELE 7.73 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.4%)
TPLP 11.03 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-0.72%)
TRG 66.00 Decreased By ▼ -1.29 (-1.92%)
WAVESAPP 10.97 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-3.35%)
WTL 1.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.01 (-0.74%)
YOUW 3.78 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.27%)
BR100 12,826 Increased By 19.4 (0.15%)
BR30 38,861 Decreased By -842.2 (-2.12%)
KSE100 118,792 Decreased By -146.5 (-0.12%)
KSE30 36,779 Increased By 22.6 (0.06%)
Business & Finance

Capacity utilisation of Pakistan’s cement industry drops to lowest on record

  • At around 55%, this is the lowest level since at least FY2007
Published June 11, 2024
Image generated by AI
Image generated by AI

Capacity utilisation of Pakistan’s cement industry dropped to 54.64% during FY24 (July-April), its lowest level on record, revealed the Economic Survey 2023-24 unveiled on Tuesday evening by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb.

Pakistan’s cement industry has an overall production capacity of 82.25 million tonnes, but local dispatches and exports totalled a paltry 37.45 million tonnes during the 10 months of the outgoing fiscal year.

This put capacity utilisation at around 55%, which is the lowest since at least FY2006-07. Data before this period was not available in terms of capacity utilisation.

 Source: Economic Survey 2023-24
Source: Economic Survey 2023-24

In FY2007, production capacity stood at 30.5 million tonnes with total dispatches at 24.26 million tonnes.

During these 17 years, the industry has taken its capacity to 82.25 million tonnes. However, in the current economic environment, the cement sector has been one of the hardest hit amid record high interest rates, runaway inflation and a rollback of development projects by the government becoming major headaches.

“The cement industry in Pakistan has faced multiple challenges,” stated the Economic Survey 2023-24 in its chapter on ‘Manufacturing and Mining’.

“The government’s fiscal constraints and limited foreign aid have delayed rehabilitation efforts in flood-affected areas and caused the overall slowdown of the construction sector.

“Additionally, the economic slowdown in global markets has resulted in lower cement exports to significant export destinations like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which have foreign exchange crises. Besides, the industry has also been impacted by the massive increase in prices of construction materials.”

Pakistan exports its cement and clinker to Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Djibouti, Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, Comoros, Seychelles, Iraq, Ethiopia, Qatar, and the USA, according to the Economic Survey.


Bilal Memon

Bilal Memon is the Head of Digital Content at Business Recorder. His Twitter handle is @bilalahmadmemon

Also read:

Comments

Comments are closed.