Various cement brands like Lucky, Elephant and Maple Leaf from the neighbouring nation began making their presence felt in the southern markets to some extent, industry sources said.
An imported bag of 50 kg of cement costs Rs 250, while the local cement was being sold at Rs 260 a bag, an official of the Kerala Cement Dealers' Association said.
A few months back, about 1,000 tonnes of imported cement was offloaded at Ernakulam at a price of Rs 220 per bag when the domestic cement was costing around Rs 250.
"Around 1,000 containers of cement were shipped to Chennai two months back and around 1,500 containers landed in Tuticorin," Ramaprasad, a Chennai-based importer said.
Each container had a capacity of 500 bags of cement weighing 50 kg each, he said, adding that Lucky and Elephant brands accounted for most of the imported cement.
Though the importers say that the quality of cement from Pakistan was good, the supply had been limited. "We are not sure of the regular supply as the international prices have gone up," Ramaprasad said.
Earlier, there was some marginal difference in the prices of the local and imported cement. However, due to increase in international prices, the cost of an imported cement bag was more or less equal to the domestic cement, Ramaprasad said.
