Energy shortage impedes textile production

25 Mar '08

2 min read

Energy crisis in Pakistan has greatly affected almost every sector. Textile industry alone is facing the closure of 70 percent of its industrial units.

This has virtually paralyzed the textile industry which is already suffering from low domestic consumption of cotton.

Experts believe that while exports are likely to fall remarkably this year, reduced demand has restricted cotton import to just 4 million bales. Of these, nearly 1.5 million bales have been imported from India.

While on the one hand cotton consumption has been declining, on the other, textile units are also closing down due to insufficient power supply.

Although cotton crop for the year 2007-08 is targeted at 14.14 million bales from an area of 3.25 million hectares, experts are of the opinion that production is likely to reach 12.8 million bales from 3.08 million hectares.

International textile and apparel market ranges from US $350 billion to $400 billion, which is likely to expand to $800 billion by 2014. Pakistan shares a mere 1.5 percent of the total which is way too less compared to the contribution made by its competing countries.

Compared to last year, Pakistan may see a decline of 14 percent in its textile exports and evidencing this is the fact that already export orders worth $57.6 million for readymade and knitwear garments have been lost to neighbouring competitors like China and India. To add to these critical circumstances, nearly 300 spinning mills and weaving factories have closed down in recent times.

Govt will have to forgo import duty on textile machineries if it wishes to encourage the production of polyester fabric. This in turn will help enhance the country's share in women fashion garments in the international market.

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