recently about the aftermath of the water shortage at the Katas Raj temple in Chawol, Punjab, and the progress of the new production line at Maple Cement's Iskanderabad plant. These two events reflect in two ways the rapid development of local industry and the potential costs of such growth.
Figure 1: Pakistan Cement Express, 2012-2017 < br/> 
Source: Pakistan Cement Manufacturing Association
The above figure shows the current situation of the cement industry in Pakistan. Pakistan's annual cement consumption increased from 33.1 million tons in 2012 to 42.8 million tons in 2017, an increase of about 30%, of which four-fifths of cement consumption is concentrated in the northern part of Pakistan. At the same time, more importantly, Pakistan's export of cement decreased from 8.3 million tons in 2013 to 4.2 million tons in 2017. The main reason for this is the decline in the Afghan market and the decrease in the export volume of water-based clinker . Considering the high proportion of cement exports in the southern market, although the total consumption of cement is increasing, the reduction of export volume may have a greater impact on the south. So far in 2018, similar trends still exist, the only change is that the export volume of clinker in the south has shown signs of rebounding this year. The increase in cement consumption in
Pakistan is ultimately due to investment from China, mainly in the form of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Projects related to China-Pakistan Economic Corridor include integrated road infrastructure, railway modernization, urban development of Gwadar city and related infrastructure. In addition, this will have an impact on local public development projects (PSDP), and demographic pressures such as housing shortages will continue to support the construction market. According to data from the
Pakistan Cement Manufacturing Association, as of September 2018, Pakistan's cement production capacity was 54 million tons per year. According to the global cement list in 2018, if the production lines under construction are included, Pakistan's cement production capacity is 66 million tons per year. By contrast, Pakistan's cement production capacity in fiscal year 1995 was only 10 million tons per year. Last year, the State Bank of Pakistan estimated in its report for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017-2018 that the annual cement production capacity could reach 73 million tons this year. Recent examples of this rapid growth include the expansion of the Iskanderabad plant, orders for fly ash cement and Kohat cement from Lesher, the addition of a solar production line at Fudge Cement's plant in Attock, and the commissioning of a new production line by Dera Ghazi Khan in Harb. All this happened in the last three months! The State Bank of Pakistan estimates that 11 producers are currently investing $2.12 billion in capacity expansion, aiming to add more than 23 million tons per year of cement capacity by the end of fiscal year 2021. In a sign of the potential costs of the industry's growth
, the cement plant near the temple of Katasraj is currently in the midst of a legal dispute over the use of water. What began as a probe to find out why the water level in one of the Indian heritage sites ponds was falling has now turned into a full-blown investigation into alleged corruption in the construction of a cement factory by the local government. In a report to the Supreme Court in Lahore, Punjab's anti-corruption agency alleged irregularities by government departments in the construction of the Chaqual cement plant by Dera Ghazi Khan and Pepsiway Cement. At this stage, the investigation seems unlikely to cause too much trouble to the local cement market, but it will certainly make it more complicated and expensive to build new plants in the future.
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