Textile sector investments witness constant decline

25 Jan '11

2 min read

Asia contributes over 90 percent of the total global investment in textile machinery with India, China and Bangladesh being the main players. But then, it seems that owing to the factors like power crisis and higher interest charges Pakistan is lacking behind.

As it follows from the recent textile machinery export's data, Asia accounted for 97 percent of the world's total spindle sales in 2009, with China importing 5.04 million spindles constituting 70 percent of the same. Similarly, India imported 1.37 million spindles representing 19 percent of the overall sales. While Vietnam and Bangladesh too imported 111,000 and 108,000 spindles and stood out to be the third and fourth largest importers of spindles, globally.

In 2006, next to China and India, each importing 6.7 million and 2.8 million spindles, Pakistan with a roaring economy imported 670,000 spindles to be positioned as the third largest importer.

However, since 2005 when the Pakistani textile sector attracted highest investments, a fall has been witnessed in these investments and that is the reason why the country is losing its competitiveness in textiles.

Dearth of gas and electricity are the main impediments blocking the way of the investments in textile sector. Besides, excessively high interest rates too have held up the investments.

Further, around 96 of the total global export of the new shuttle-less looms in 2009 was towards Asia. Whereas China by importing 25,600 units representing 59 percent of the overall exports emerged as the biggest importer and Bangladesh followed with a 19 percent share by importing 8,400 looms.

In 2006 Pakistan imported 2,400 shuttle-less looms and stood to be the fourth largest importer of the same next to China, India and Bangladesh, but then the country's weaving sector failed to attract any investments during 2009.

Over the last five years, Bangladesh has surpassed Pakistan as far as the textile sector investments are concerned, as after 2006 no significant investment has been made in the sector in Pakistan.

Also in 2009, Asia accounted for 85 of the global investments in circular knitting machines, with China adding 17,600 machines, followed by Mauritius with 2,300 units, Bangladesh with 840, India with 570 and Brazil and Korean Republic each adding 540 and 360 units respectively. While over the last five years Pakistan has not made any investment in knitting machines.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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