Latest Steel Cement rates INCREASED
During Covid19 outbreak Government of Pakistan decided to resume the construction industry and also announced a relief package on construction. After resuming and announcement of the relief package everyone hoped to a decrease in construction materials and its cost.
As we all were hoping that the construction prices will fall after the ordinance for Construction relief package but that dream also seems a bit distant after the local industry decided to increase the prices of the material.
Steel prices had already gone up by Rs11/kg due to no import and huge demand but along with steel the local industry has also pulled up their socks. Cement industry has decided to increase their rates by staggering Rs 60/Kg and before long other materials could very well increase their prices as well. After the increase in steel pricing we predicted in our video about cement prices also going up by about Rs50/- yesterday and today the new rates confirmed that the Latest Steel Cement rates INCREASED
As per the steel dealers in the market, manufacturer companies have increased the prices of all sizes steel to around 120K-121K Rs/ton for Grade 60 in & around Lahore. For Islamabad prices of grade 60 steel are also in the range of 115k-117k Rs/ton. Prices have gone up from almost 111k Rs/ton. Since the government announced lock dohttps://web.archive.org/web/20230201030343/https://teamovercs.com/2018/02/latest-market-rates/wn in entire country on March 24th 2020, factories production has come to halt and steel being produced by most of the imported raw material, import has come down to almost standstill due to the overall lock down in other parts of the world. Due to the shortage in steel stocks and no more new production, prices of steel have witnessed sharp increase. Falling value of Pak Rupee against dollar has also resulted in increase of steel prices.
Despite the lock down due to Covid19 in entire country and no significant demand of cement at all, joint meeting of cement manufacturers after a meeting decided to increase the prices by 10.5%.
After the federal committee issued ordinance for the construction relief package announced by the PM, it was being predicted that the overall house construction cost will come down, however no amnesty or reduction in withholding taxes was given to cement and steel industry. On the contrary steel prices were increased by the steel manufacturers followed by the cement manufactures.
However, with the recent hike of Rs50-60 per bag, cement prices in the region now stand at an average of Rs500-530 per bag. However, cement prices in the southern region remain unchanged and are unlikely to be raised in the near term with the average price already at a premium of 14% against its northern counterparts (average of Rs680 per bag), according to AKD Research report.