Day: June 7, 2022

The total sales of cement during May 2022 dropped by 15.85 percent, registering total sales of 3.32 million tons compared to 3.94 million tons in the same period last year.

According to the data released by the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), local cement sales by the industry during the month of May 2022 were 3.15 million tons compared to 3.2 million tons in May 2021, showing a reduction of 1.6 percent.

Exports dispatches suffered a massive decline of 76.97 percent as the volumes reduced from 746,550 tons in May 2021 to 171,915 tons in May 2022.

In May 2022, North-based cement mills dispatched 2.57 million tons of cement in domestic markets, showing a reduction of 5.16 percent against 2.71 million tons’ dispatches in May 2021. South-based mills dispatched 576,385 tons of cement to local markets during May 2022 which was 18.28 percent higher compared to the dispatches of 487,311 tons during May 2021.

Exports from North-based mills massively declined by 64.42 percent as the quantities reduced from 203,625 tons in May 2021 to 72,450 tons in May 2022. Exports from the South also reduced by 81.68 percent to 99,465 tons in May 2022 from 542,925 tons during the same month last year.

During the first eleven months of the current fiscal year, total cement dispatches (domestic and exports) were 47.62 million tons, which is 8.8 percent lower than 52.22 million tons dispatched during the corresponding period of the last fiscal year.

Further analysis indicates that domestic uptake reduced by 1.83 percent to 42.65 million tons from 43.45 million tons during July-May 2021 whereas exports during the same period declined by a massive 43.32 percent to 4.97 million tons from 8.77 million tons during July-May 2021.

North-based Mills dispatched 35.31 million tons of cement domestically during the first eleven months of the current fiscal year, showing a reduction of 3.82 percent as compared to cement dispatches of 36.72 million tons during July-May 2021. Exports from the North declined by 65.6 percent to 813,522 tons during July- May 2022 compared with 2.36 million tons exported during the same period last year.

Domestic dispatches by South-based Mills during July- May 2022 were 7.33 million tons, showing an increase of 9.07 percent over 6.72 million tons of cement dispatched during the same period of last fiscal year. There was however substantial decline of around 35.1 percent in exports from the south zone as the volumes reduced to 4.15 million tons in the first eleven months of the current fiscal year from 6.4 million tons during the corresponding period of last fiscal year.

Expressing grave concerns over the political uncertainty prevailing in the country, a spokesman of the All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association mentioned that the continuous downfall of the rupee coupled with the skyrocketing prices of coal, electricity and petroleum products is badly affecting the business momentum.

He emphasized that the government should ensure political stability in the country and must give attention to industry concerns in the coming budget. “We hope that the government will provide some relief to the industry by reducing duties and taxes as well as focusing on PSDP and CPEC projects, which may help kick start the industry’s revival in the next fiscal year,” he added.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Federal Minister of National Food Security and Research Tariq Bashir Cheema said that the crop and livestock productivity in Pakistan is less than 50 percent of the economic potential.

He was addressing the Prime Minister’s pre-budget conference on agriculture on 7 June 2022.

Tariq Bashir Cheema said that the Ministry of National Food Security and Research has worked closely with the Planning Commission and all provinces to devise a 3-Year Growth Strategy for sector development and improve food security.

The strategy has four main pillars i.e., enhancement of farm productivity and farmer profits, development of climate-smart agriculture by adopting regenerative agricultural practices, self-sufficiency and import substitution and value-addition and agro-processing

Federal Minister said that the crop and livestock productivity in Pakistan is less than 50 percent of the economic potential. Farmer profits are generally low and highly variable.

Higher and focused investments in research and development, rapid mechanization, and adoption of climate-smart regenerative agricultural practices will significantly decrease the cost of production, increase farmer profits, and save more than half of irrigation water and chemical inputs.

Tariq Bashir Cheema said that we need to focus on genetic improvements for high-yielding crop cultivars, ensure an adequate and timely supply of inputs (water, seeds, fertilizer, pesticides) and announcement of support price, at least, 3 months before the start of the cropping season while minimizing post-harvest losses and improvement in processing and packaging techniques.

Federal Minister said that the livestock sector needs genetic improvements for high-yielding livestock breeds, provision of adequate and timely healthcare facilities, improved feeds and feeding techniques, value addition to livestock products (dairy and beef/mutton), identification of policy measures to enhance agriculture sector exports through trade agreements with more countries.

He continued that there is a dire need to devise policy reforms/actions for growth strategy in the agricultural sector to boost exports, substitute exports and/or attain self-sufficiency.

Source: Pro Pakistani

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail Tuesday said that the government is determined to present a progressive budget with a focus on fiscal consolidation.

Addressing a pre-budget business conference, the finance minister said that fiscal consolidation will bring down the budget deficit to below 5 percent of GDP.

The minister said that the government has formulated an effective strategy to achieve a GDP growth of 6 percent and curtail inflation.

Ismail said that the coalition government was forced to take some difficult decisions to put the economy back on track and more such measures could be taken if required.

The minister said that the government came into power in a tough situation but expressed hope that it would leave the economy in a much better condition at the completion of its tenure.

He said that the government has had positive talks with Saudi Arabia, China, the United Arab Emirates, and a number of other friendly countries, and they would hopefully help Pakistan get out of this tough situation.

Ismail said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had directed to take adequate measures to provide maximum relief to the lower income groups before the hike in petroleum prices. The minister mentioned that the government would provide a monthly stipend to approximately one-third of the country’s population to cushion the impact of the fuel price hike.

Ismail said that the government is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and an agreement would be signed soon.

Source: Pro Pakistani

K-Electric (KE) has requested the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) for a Rs. 4.86 per unit increase under the monthly fuel cost adjustment (FCA).

https://4f940a0b8a282831aaf5cbcfd658e60e.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html This FCA petition is for the month of April and the consumers will be charged in July. If the monthly FCA is approved as per KE’s petition, the Karachiites will have to pay an additional Rs. 9.35 billion.

NEPRA will also consider an increase in KE’s tariff by Rs. 4.52 per unit for the first-quarter ending in March.

NEPRA will hear both the petitions on June 14 and will ascertain whether the KE has observed the merit order while dispatching to its power plants and power purchases from external resources. It will also see if the monthly fuel adjustment and quarterly tariff adjustment requests are justified by cross-examining KE’s data.

NEPRA had announced a Multi-Year Tariff (MYT) in 2019, which prescribed a mechanism for change in the MYT on a monthly and quarterly basis.

The request has come at a time when the entire country, including Karachi, is experiencing prolonged power outages due to a reportedly acute shortage of fuel, particularly gas, to K-Electric.

According to KE’s Director Communications Imran Rana, the supply of indigenous cheaper gas to K-Electric remains zero since the beginning of this year, while RLNG’s cost remains above Rs. 4500 per mmbtu versus last year’s Rs. 1500 per mmbtu around the same period.

Furthermore, the supply of imported gas has been reduced to less than 100 mmcfd which K-Electric used to get over 190 mmcfd last year. And there are reports that in Karachi, the duration of load shedding has even reached 12 hours in various low recovery locations.

KE recently wrote a letter to the Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah where it pleaded for the immediate resolution of KE’s Tariff Differential Subsidies (TDS) Claims which have ballooned to a critical point.

KE said in its letter that even after adjusting its payments to the National Transmission and Dispatch Company (NTDC) and the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA), its net receivables due to TDS Claims stand at Rs. 25 billion.

Source: Pro Pakistani