Cement price increases to Rs375 per 50kg bag in Karachi

[Naveed Yaseen]

KARACHI: Cement prices in Karachi are rising continuously and reached Rs375 per 50kg bag in the retail market. Cement dealers attribute this hike to rising cement exports from the south of the country.

Walibhai Patel, a cement dealer from Karachi, said that cement prices rose to Rs375 per 50kg in the retail market due to high cement exports from the country.

Cement dealers are of the view that cement shortage in the retail market is also pushing up the commodity’s prices.

Market sources predict that cement prices all over the country would further rise in the coming days. Patel said that there is a huge shortage of cement in the local market which has now reached 0.6 million tonnes. Karachi’s need is 1.1 million tonnes and only 0.5 million tonnes are available in the local market. “Cement companies are releasing less quantity in the market,” he said. The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) is investigating the making of a cartel by many sectors and cement is one of the many, which is under fire for alleged cartelisation in the country.

Cement prices in the country have increased very rapidly during the last one and a half months and now this price hike has reached over Rs100 per 50kg bag in the said period.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=121861