Cement sales decreased to 5.214 million tonnes in October 2021 against 5.735 million tonnes in the same month of the last year, showing a decline of 9.07 percent on a year-on-year basis. According to the data released by All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA), local cement shipments by the industry during the month of October 2021 were 4.603 million tonnes compared to 4.859 million tonnes in October 2020, showing a reduction of 5.29 percent. Exports despatches suffered a massive decline by 30.09 percent as the volumes reduced from 875,266 tonnes in October 2020 to 611,884 tonnes in October 2021. In October 2021, north-based cement mills dispatched 3.831 million tonnes of cement in domestic markets showing a decline of 8.01 percent against 4.164 million tonnes dispatched in October 2020. The south-based mills dispatched 771,755 tonnes of cement in local markets during October 2021 that was 11.01 percent higher compared to the despatches of 695,221 tonnes during October 2020, said APCMA. Exports from north-based mills declined by 74.03 percent as the quantities reduced from 283,389 tonnes in October 2020 to 73,608 tonnes in October 2021. Exports from the south also decreased by 9.06 percent to 538,276 tonnes in October 2021 from 591,877 tonnes during the same month last year, according to APCMA. The data showed that during the first four months of the current fiscal year, total cement despatches (domestic and exports) were 18.039 million tonnes, which calculated to be 6.68 percent lower than 19.331 million tonnes dispatched during the corresponding period of last fiscal year. Further analysis indicate that domestic uptake of the commodity slightly increased by 1.1 percent to 15.882 million tonnes from 15.713 million tonnes during July-October 2020 whereas exports during the same period declined by a massive 40.4 percent to 2.157 million tonnes from 3.617 million tonnes during July-October 2020. The north-based mills despatched 13.314 million tonnes cement domestically during the first four months of the current fiscal year showing a decline of 2.3 percent than cement despatches of 13.627 million tonnes during July-October 2020. Exports from the north declined by 49.06 percent to 461,275 tonnes during July-October 2021 compared with 905,575 tonnes exported during the same period last year. Domestic despatches by south-based mills during July-October2021 were 2.56 million tons showing a healthy increase of 23 percent over 2.08 million tonnes of cement dispatched during the same period of last fiscal year. There was, however, a massive decline of around 37.45 percent in exports from the south zone as the volumes reduced to 1.696 million tons in the first four months of the current fiscal year from 2.712 million tons during corresponding period of last fiscal year, according to the data.