Pakistan’s cement manufacturer, Flying Cement Company Limited, has installed a coal-based power plant to meet its energy needs, stated a notice to the stock exchange.

“We announce that the company has successfully completed the installation of new captive power plant of 12MW at its site in district Khoshab and its trial operations are expected to be started during next month,” stated the company on Thursday in its filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX).

Flying Cement manufactures, markets, and sells cement at its manufacturing plant located at Khoshab in Punjab province, with an annual capacity of 686,000 tons of clinker and 720,000 tons of cement.

The company said that the start of this captive power plant will eliminate its dependency on Wapda, the major power provider in the country, and will enable the company to be self-reliant in power consumption.

This will also result in significant cost savings on account of power going forward.

The cement sector has shown impressive growth after resumption of activities after the strict lockdown that was imposed upon the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the month of May, total cement dispatches stood at 3.947 million tons against 2.634 million tons dispatched during the same month last fiscal year, a growth of 49.86 percent.

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 tons from 2.271 million tons in May 2020, depicting an increase of 40.95 percent.

Exports also massively increased by 105.56 percent, from 363,174 tons in May 2020 to 746,550 tons in May 2021.