Textile exports dip 8.15pc to $9.363bln in July-March

KARACHI: Pakistan’s textile exports dropped 8.15 percent to $9.363 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, official data showed on Thursday as value-added sector is still feeling the pinch of waning foreign orders and liquidity constraints.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) said the country exported $10.194 billion of textile merchandises in the same period of the last fiscal year. 

Raw cotton exports decreased 46.97 percent to $75.326 million in July-March 2015/16 over the same period of July-March 2014/15. Cotton yarn exports amounted $989.033 million in the period under review, down 32.45 percent over the comparable period. Cotton cloth fetched $1.685 billion in July-March 2015/16, falling 10.14 percent over the same period a year ago.   The PBS data showed that exports of knitwear and bed wear declined 2.1 and 4.13 percent to $1.749 billion and $1.505 billion, respectively in the July-March period over the comparable period. 

Exports of readymade garments, however, improved 4.2 percent to $1.609 billion in the first nine months. 

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said the local textile industry is enduring a waning demand curve in its export destinations. The industry is also not adapting to the changing consumer preferences, the SBP said in its quarterly economic review.

“Following the addition of more efficient spindles by India, China and Bangladesh, it is not possible for our textile sector to compete internationally,” it said. “To catch up with competitors, textile industry in Pakistan needs to invest heavily in balancing, modernisation and replacement.”

The PBS data further showed that food sector, which is also major foreign exchange earner for the country, also went on the downward path. Total food exports decreased 11.59 percent to $3.040 billion in July-March 2015/16. Rice exports dropped 12.34 percent to $1.375 billion. Exports of fish and fish preparations and fruits slid 5.28 and 5.34 percent to $240 million and $356 million, respectively. 

In July-March 2015/16, imports declined 4.29 percent to $32.489 billion over the similar period a year earlier, mainly because of a sharp cut in the import bills of petroleum products. 

Oil import bill shrank 37.24 percent to $5.583 billion in the period under review as international crude prices sank to 12-year lows and are still finding it hard to bottom out. 

The PBS said imports of fertiliser, insecticides and other agriculture inputs slid 3.76 percent to $5.332 billion in July-March 2015/16 over the similar period a year ago. 

Auto imports inched down 0.58 percent to $1.904 billion in the period under review. 

Machinery imports, however, increased 14.05 percent to $6.212 billion in July-March. Of them, power generating machinery imports surged 42.68 percent to $1.332 billion and electric machinery imports rose 51.21 percent to $1.320 billion. Telecom sector imports amounted to $1.047 billion, marginally down 2.18 percent in the period under review.

Food imports increased 2.68 percent to $3.938 billion. Imports of textile products shot up 27.59 percent to $2.394 billion. Raw cotton imports climbed 161 percent to $588 million in July-March 2015/16.