LSM surges by 14.85pc in FY21

ISLAMABAD: Despite the lockdowns and partial closure of markets during various waves of Covid-19 pandemic, Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) posted a growth of 14.85 per cent during 2020-21 (FY21) against the previous fiscal year due to higher output in textiles, auto, cement, sugar, iron and steel, fertiliser and the petroleum sectors.

As per data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), LSM output increased by 18.42pc for June, 2021 compared to June, 2020 and 4.36pc if compared to May 2021.

Production output in almost all sectors increased in FY21 against FY20. These sectors included textile, food, beverages and tobacco, coke and petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automobiles, fertilisers, non-metallic mineral products, paper and boards and iron and steel products.

However, the output was negative in products including wood, engineering, electronics, rubber products and leather.

Textile, the top contributing sector to the overall big industry output, increased by 15.31pc, food, beverages and tobacco 11.01pc, coke and petroleum products 18.05pc, pharmaceuticals 12.03pc, chemicals 19.19pc, automobiles 51.06pc, non-metallic mineral products 26.66pc, fertilisers 7.23pc, paper and board 3.35pc, and iron and steel products 15.58pc during FY21 compared to the same period FY20.

The sectors showing a decline during FY21 compared to fiscal year FY20 included electronics 4.43pc, engineering products 15.37pc, leather products 26.45pc, wood products 39.35pc, and rubber products 14.99pc.

Petroleum products witnessed an increase of 18.05pc as the output went up from 12.13 billion litres during FY20 to 14.32bn litres in FY21.

High speed diesel production in country witnessed a growth of 23.92pc at 5.61bn litres. Petrol (motor spirit) production was enhanced by 27.61pc to 3.424bn litres during FY21.

Output of furnace oil increased by 14.65pc while the production of LPG and kerosene oil witnessed growth of 15.08pc and 9.12pc, respectively.

Cement witnessed 27.31pc growth at 49.80bn tonnes.

In FY21, 50,486 tractors were produced, witnessing a growth of 54.83pc. The country manufactured 2.47m motorcycles – showing a growth of 36.53pc in F21 against the previous fiscal

The PBS also released provisional numbers of LSM output for the month of June 2021 which showed a growth of 18.42pc against the period in FY20.

The highest surge has been witnessed in the automobile sector with 88.91pc growth in June 2021 compared to June 2020, while textile sector posted growth of 11.82pc, coke & petroleum products 38.93pc, iron & steel products 32.93pc, non metallic mineral products 32.60pc, chemicals 24.53pc, leather products 24.35pc, pharmaceuticals 10.82pc, electronics 10.58pc and fertilisers sector posted a growth of 9.95pc.

Two sectors — rubber products and wood products — witnessed a decline in production by 25.39pc and 53.73pc, respectively, in June 2021 against the same month in FY20.