Displaying items by tag: Pakistan

Pakistan: The Ministry of Commerce has advised the government that a concessionary rate for cement companies for the supply of electricity would reduce costs and increase international competitiveness. The Business Recorder newspaper has reported that the ministry proposed the measure due to the industry’s ‘immense’ potential for exports. In the 2020 financial year, the country exported US$266m-worth of cement. The ministry said that the current government’s policies would cause this to ‘substantially’ increase.

Pakistan: The government of Punjab Province has approved five cement plant plans worth a total of US$1.25bn. The Frontier Post newspaper has reported that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar chaired a cabinet meeting in which No Objection Certificates (NOCs) were issued to five planned cement plant projects.

Pakistan: Cement dispatches in the five months to 30 November 2020, the first five months of the 2021 financial year, were 24Mt, up by 17% year-on-year from 20Mt over the corresponding period of the 2020 financial year. Data from the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA) shows that exports grew by 22% to 4.4Mt from 3.6Mt. The Nation newspaper has reported that November 2020’s dispatches were up by 4% year-on-year to 4.5Mt from 4.3Mt, while domestic demand rose by 6% to 3.7Mt from 3.5Mt. Five-month demand also rose, by 16% to 19Mt from 17Mt.

Pakistan: Pioneer Cement has begun power generation at its upgraded 24MW coal-fired power plant. Link News has reported that the plant previously had a power generation capacity of 12MW.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement has placed an order for three 10MW 34DF dual-fuel engines for its Pezu cement plant in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province from Finland-based Wärtsilä. The engines are capable of operating on various fuels but will be fuelled primarily by natural gas. They have been ordered to provide additional power for the unit’s captive power plant due to an increase in cement production capacity. The orders were placed in April, August, and November 2020. No value for the order has been disclosed.

“It is important for large cement producers to have operational flexibility to run the power plant on multiple fuels in case the gas supply is interrupted, or whenever otherwise required. Wärtsilä’s multi-fuel power generating technology provides the kind of flexibility that we need for an efficient and reliable power supply. The cement plant is relying purely on the power plant with Wärtsilä gensets supplying the power,” said Syed Noman Hasan, executive director at Lucky Cement.

In addition to the engines, Wärtsilä is also supplying waste heat recovery boilers needed to generate steam required for the steam turbines for electricity generation in combined cycle mode. The first Wärtsilä engine is being delivered in November 2020 and is expected to become fully operational in January 2021. The remaining two engines will be delivered by March 2021 and will become operational in May 2021.

The cement plant already uses ten Wärtsilä dual-fuel engines in its on-site power plant. The need for the new engines follows on from an increase in cement production capacity.

Pakistan: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) conducted a search and inspection of the Karachi offices of the All Pakistan Manufacturers Association (APCMA) on Thursday 19 November 2020. The search was carried out as part of an enquiry launched in May 2020 to investigate possible anti-competitive activities by cement producers. Two different CCP teams entered and searched the offices of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of APCMA and impounded relevant records.

The enquiry began based on the information gathered through various media reports and concerns expressed regarding a concurrent increase in cement prices across Pakistan, particularly during April 2020. The APCMA stands accused of orchestrating a price rise among producers.

The CCP previously searched and inspected the APCMA’s main offices in Lahore. That search allegedly led to the discovery of WhatsApp messages and emails that led investigators to believe there were grounds for further investigation.

Iran: Cement production rose by 14.4% year-on-year to 35.6Mt in the first half of the local calendar year that started in March 2020 from 31.1Mt in the same period in the previous year. The sector exported 5.8Mt of cement with a value of US$128m to 28 countries according to the Mehr News Agency. India, Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Qatar, Kenya, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China and Oman were among the export destinations of cement.

Pakistan: Cement producers dispatched a record 5.74Mt in October 2020. Exports rose by 12% to 875,000t from 784,000t. The Nation newspaper has reported that the figure brings Pakistan’s total dispatches for the first four months of the 2021 financial year, from 1 July 2020 to 31 October 2020, to 19.3Mt, up by 20% from 16.1Mt in the first four months of the 2020 financial year.

The All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association said that cement consumption may increase further if the government rationalises duties and taxes and withdraws excise duty.

Pakistan: Lucky Cement chief executive officer (CEO) Muhammed Ali Tabba has praised the government’s decision to lift coronavirus lockdown restrictions on the export of products. As a result, he predicted that the rate of export growth would increase in 2020. The Balochistan Times newspaper has reported that Tabba also welcomed the end of restrictions on construction, and thanked the State Bank of Pakistan for subsidising payrolls during the on-going national coronavirus lockdown and the Ministry of Finance for releasing business refunds quickly.

Tabba said, “The country has benefited greatly from the way the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has won the war against a pandemic like Covid-19.”

Pakistan: Lucky Cement recorded a profit of US$13.8m in the first quarter of the 2021 financial year, which begun on 1 July 2020, up by 130% year-on-year from US$5.95m in the first quarter of the 2020 financial year. Net sales rose by 49% to US$89.0m from US$59.8m The cement producer said that the rise resulted from, “a massive recovery in margins amid improvement in retention prices and robust off-take.”

The company added that its upcoming 1.2Mt/yr integrated Samawah cement plant in Iraq is on schedule to begin commercial production in December 2020.