Textile exports fall 5 percent MoM in January

KARACHI: Pakistan’s textile exports decreased five percent in January of this fiscal when compared with December, starting to lose the growth momentum, which traders blame on the prevalent gas crisis that has hit the industries. “Further decline will be observed in export of textiles goods when figures of February and March would be out,” noted the textile representing trade body, which squarely blamed the gas crisis for putting the brakes on the growth momentum of the textile exports.

Textile exports increased 17 percent in January this fiscal compared to the same month of the last fiscal; however, a visible decline was witnessed in the month-on-month review of data.

Textiles exports posted a significant growth during the first seven months of this fiscal, compared to July-January of last year.

Figures shared by Arif Habib Limited were confirmed by All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) when its Chairman for South Zone Asif Inam told The News that these figures are authentic and textile exports have started receding on the back of what he believed “the worst gas crisis in Sindh”.

This negative growth in textile exports comes days after Adviser to Prime Minister Razzak Dawood claimed that Pakistan grabbed orders from its competitors when these countries shut down due to rising Covid-19 cases.

Khurram Mukhtar, Patron-in-Chief Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) said that Pakistan managed to ensure interrupted supply of textile goods in the global market when its competitors went under lockdown to tackle Covid cases.

“This was the reason for the growth and it led to major expansion in the sector when an investment of $5 billion was made,” Mukhtar said.

The PTEA official, who is based in Faisalabad, said that out of $5 billion investment, $3 billion worth of textile machinery was imported and $2 billion were put in the form of equity.

APTMA’s Asif Inam said that investment would go in vain because of the gas crisis, which has hit the industry so hard that it lost the “growth momentum, which was gained by thriving on the orders of international buyers”.

He anticipated that the five percent decline in textile exports in January compared to December would grow higher in February and March due to the inability of exporters to honour their commitments made to the international buyers.

He regretted the government’s mismanagement of the gas issue in winter, when short supply severely hit the export-oriented sector.

“If imported gas was expensive, government could have taken us into confidence that industry has to pay extra for high price of gas,” said Inam, claiming that the industry would have been ready to buy gas at a higher price for the sake of improving exports. But unfortunately, the government did nothing on its part to handle the issue of gas shortage, he added.