Recently, the Ministry of Maritime Affairs of Pakistan announced that it would upgrade Qasim Port to the "flagship springboard" for the export of national cement and clinker, and break the bottleneck of the port caused by the recent surge in exports by adding new berths, expanding storage yards and breaking through logistics blockages.
Data show that in the last fiscal year, the export volume and price of cement and clinker in Pakistan increased: the offshore amount jumped from US $266.5 million to US $329.8 million, an increase of 23.7%; the export volume increased by 28.7% year-on-year. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, the United States and Ghana have become the main export markets, among which the growth rate of African and North American routes is the most eye-catching.
Federal Maritime Minister Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chowdhury set the tone at the briefing that this round of expansion will take Port Qasim as the core, and the Port Authority will lead the formation of a "Port-wide Joint Group", which has finalized a package of short, flat and fast plans: two new multi-purpose berths will be started by the end of 2025, and a 30,000-ton closed clinker storage will be built simultaneously. The existing damaged storage yard will be permanently repaired, and the whole project is scheduled to be completed in December.
The government specifically named "building a fast export channel with the All-Pakistan Cement Manufacturers Association (APCMA)", and planned to transform a bulk cargo berth with insufficient utilization rate into a special clinker line in the port area, so as to realize "loading on arrival" and reduce the average detention time by more than 30%. According to the association, the domestic demand for cement has been declining for three consecutive years, the capacity utilization rate is less than 70%, and export has become the only way to digest surplus capacity; the expansion decision of Qasim Port is "equivalent to opening the second growth curve for the industry". In the summary document, the Ministry of
Maritime Affairs emphasized that the annual throughput capacity of Qasim Port will increase by 8 million tons after the landing of the project, which will drive Pakistan's cement export scale to break through the 10 million tons mark, further consolidate its price advantage in the markets of South Asia, East Africa and North America, and feed back the domestic industrial chain with logistics dividends to enhance foreign exchange income and employment elasticity.