Pioneer Cement blames poor profits on competition and raw material costs

Pakistan: Aly Khan, the chairman of Pioneer Cement, has blamed falling profits on competition on prices and rising costs of raw materials. The company’s profit after taxation nearly halved year-on-year to US$16.9m in the year that ended on 30 June 2018 to US$31.1m in the same period in 2017. Its sales revenue fell slightly to US$111m due to a steep decline in clinker sales. Despite this, cement sales volumes grew by 9% to 1.5Mt from 1.4Mt.