Cement exports from the south region finally ramp up again

For most of the past decade the centre of gravity in Pakistan’s cement business lay solidly in the north. Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa supplied the lion’s share of domestic demand, while whatever trickle of exports the country managed usually slipped across land borders into Afghanistan. Karachi-based plants were the industry’s junior partners – handy for coastal clinker purchases, but rarely trend-setters, a fall from grace from the Musharraf era heyday when they were exporters helping build out the construction boom in the Middle East during that period.

That hierarchy has flipped back. Over the first nine months of the current fiscal year (9MFY25) Pakistan shipped 6.5 million tonnes of cement and clinker abroad, up 28% year-on-year. Southern plants – essentially the Karachi–Thatta strip plus a clutch of facilities around Hub in Lasbela – were responsible for 5.4 million tonnes, a 33% surge that sprinted far ahead of anything produced inland. Exports now make up 54% of all sales booked by the southern cluster, vs. a ten-year average of just 34%.