Pakistan cement makers, facing anti-dumping probes, are unlikely to lose South African market as their offered prices are still attractive for the African importers, industry officials said on Saturday.

The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) is investigating claims by cement producers that cement from Pakistan is being dumped in the Southern African Customs Union (SACU), of which Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland are also members.

At least four African cement manufacturers – Afrisam, Lafarge, NPC Cimpor and PPC – claim that bagged cement from Pakistan has been dumped at a 48 percent lower price than is the normal value in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Lucky Cement and DG Khan Cement are the leading exporters to SACU.

Amin Ganny, chief operating officer at Lucky Cement, cast aside the perception that the cement sector would face huge losses if the ongoing probe on anti-dumping proves them at fault.

“There is a common perception that the industry would face a significant loss (on anti-dumping probe), and that the lucky cement would take huge hit, which is not correct,” Ganny told The News.

“These allegations are only going to strengthen our resolve to stay ahead of the industry in terms of innovation and strategy,” he added.

Industry officials said the quality of Pakistani cement is superior, thus, other manufacturers find it difficult to compete with the shipments from Pakistan in their markets. They try and impose non-tariff barriers on to block exports from Pakistan, they said.

“We have seen similar tactics in African markets before where we were blamed for shipments of low quality cement, but we managed that issue. We are facing similar issues in the Indian markets and have requested our governments to solve it, to make Pakistani cement accessible to Indian consumers,” Ganny said.

SACU is a lucrative market for the Pakistani cement manufacturers, as they exported around 1.6 million tons during the last fiscal year. Pakistan’s total cement exports were 8.3 million tons in FY14.

Industry officials said South Africa is a cement-deficit country, which may not afford to ban cement imports from Pakistan. Shipments from Pakistan are economically viable for them, as the manufacturers here are quoting much cheaper price of the commodity then the competitors India and or the Middle East, they added.

An industry source said the gap between export price and the price within Pakistan was not as huge as African manufacturers were quoting. “The existing price gap is reasonable,” he said.

Industry officials said high local taxes is the reason behind low export prices offered by the manufacturers.

“There is one percent rebate on cement exports. On the contrary, there is 33 percent corporate tax, 17 percent general sales tax, and five percent federal excise duty on local sales,” another official said. “The taxes on local sales have made exports cheaper,” he added.

Cement manufacturers expect probes by South African authorities on anti-dumping charges may end with some new duties on cement import in Africa.

“This non-tariff barrier might be taken by the African regulatory body to protect its local manufacturers,” he added.