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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bestway cement inaugurates new facility as sales pick up

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Pakistani cement magnate, Bestway Cement has inaugurated its installation of a new 1.8-million-ton facility and has also started production.

“Bestway Cement has completed the construction and installation of a brownfield expansion project at its Farooqia plant site in a record time of 14 months,” Company Secretary Sehar Husain announced in a notification sent to the Pakistan Stock Exchange on Friday, the first of June. The new facility named the Farooqia Line-II, has a clinker production capacity of up to 6,000 tons per day and it has started production from May 31st.

According to Sherman Securities’ Research Analyst Saqib Hussain, it is the fourth increase in production by a cement manufacturer after Attock Cement, Lucky Cement and DG Khan Cement. Meanwhile, more increase in production capacity is expected from Cherat, Maple Leaf, Pioneer and Thatta Cement, a local publication reported.

Trade activities between Pakistan and India have slowed down in current fiscal year of 2017-18, as the bilateral trade between the two rival nations has dropped to $1.25 billion from $2.4 billion of five years ago in 2013.

“Addition of the new capacity may push cement prices down”, the analyst said, “cement players have brought new production capacities beyond existing demand”. Earlier, Lucky Cement and Attock Cement had cumulatively added 2.4 million tons of new production lines in December 2017 and January 2018 and another capacity of 2.6 million tons was added by DG Khan Cement last month.

On another positive note, as per statistics released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association, total cement dispatches in March 2018 were 4.65 million tons, the highest in history.

Read more: Pakistan Cement Industry set to boost capacity with new projects

This was 17.33 % higher than the total dispatches of 3.97 million tons achieved in March 2017. The domestic consumption was 4.26 million tons out of which 3.54 million tons were consumed in the northern part and 0.72 million tons were consumed in the southern part of the country, reflecting a growth of 13.52%.

Exports started improving in February 2018 and have continued to improve in March 2018. Exports from the north increased mainly due to a sudden surge in exports to Afghanistan that increased from 0.04 million tons in March 2017 to 0.11 million tons in March 2018.

During the first nine months of this year, the industry dispatched 34.76 million tons of cement, 14.70% higher than 30.304 million tons cement dispatched during corresponding period last year.

Pakistani cement magnate, Bestway Cement has inaugurated its installation of a new 1.8-million-ton facility and has also started production. The new facility named the Farooqia Line-II, has a clinker production capacity of up to 6,000 tons per day and it has started production from May 31st.

According to the International Cement Review, experts are eyeing an increase in exports of cement from Pakistan during the outgoing FY18. The country recorded its highest growth of cement exports during 2008-10, when, it hovered around 10.75Mt. Of late, exports have started to drift and reached at 4.66Mt in 2016-17 and 3.9Mt in 10 months of FY18.

Read more: Experts predict Pakistan Cement exports to rise

According to a research house report, cement exports are expected to post stellar growth of more than 37 percent YoY in May, due to addition of new production plants of Lucky Cement and Attock Cement Pakistan (ACPL). “We expect export dispatches to remain over 400,000t during May,”, GVS earlier reported.

Nabeel Khursheed, an analyst at Topline Securities said, “Higher exports from Lucky and ACPL’s new cement lines in south region, which came online in December 2017 and January 2018, continue to support this growth as sea exports are expected to settle over 200,000t, up by more than 100 percent YoY (in May).”

Trade activities between Pakistan and India have slowed down in current fiscal year of 2017-18, as the bilateral trade between the two rival nations has dropped to $1.25 billion from $2.4 billion of five years ago in 2013.