ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: Manufactured exports with a total of over $2.37 billion improved their share in total exports during July-September 2002, according to the detailed provisional foreign trade figures of the Federal Bureau of Statistics.

The increase in their share is attributable both to substantial drop in exports of rice which reduced the proportion (nearly 8pc) of primary commodities in total exports but also to sizable rise in exports of textile manufactures as well as miscellaneous items (“Others”).

As against the first quarter of previous financial year, manufactured exports were up by an impressive 14.19pc.

Textile manufactures increased their exports over the same period of previous year by 14.87pc. Equally impressive was their contribution to exports of manufactured items. It was 77.56pc, up 7.44pc from July-September 2001.

As a proportion of total exports ($2.58 billion), their contribution too moved up from 64.64pc to 64.90pc during the period under review. FBS has reported the total amount of Textile manufactures exports as $1.67 billion.

Out of 9 broad categories of textile manufactures, only two fetched negative unit price. These were cotton yarn and knitwear.

The quantity of cotton yarn exported in July-September was 138,686 tons, 8.47pc more than during the same period of previous year. Apart from the fact that cotton yarn represents negative value-addition, its price plummeted $122 per ton, thus sharply slashing the increase in value higher quantity of yarn export should have produced — only 1.44pc.

Another noteworthy aspect of cotton yarn export is that its importance among textile manufactures is on decline. In July- September 2002, its share was 14.51pc compared to 16.43pc during the same period of previous year.

Likewise, export of knitwear, a value-added item went up 20.84pc in quantity but the value received was only 9.07pc higher.

Cotton cloth with export totalling $318.65 million was again the No. 1 earner of foreign exchange with an increase of 29.53pc in dollars over the previous year, compared to quantitative increase of 18.35pc.

The exports of bedwear ($286.20 million) towels ($78.52 million), tents, canvas & tarpaulin ($6.58 million), readymade garments ($268.97 million) and artificial silk & synthetic textile ($116.28 million) recorded a growth of 31.47pc, 17.38pc, 1.14pc, 17.54pc and 1.37pc respectively.

Of these items, however, the quantitative exports of following items showed negative growth: Tents etc. (-4.06pc), readymade garments (-11.49pc) and art. Silk & synthetic textile (-12.17pc).

The only item that declined in terms of value was ‘madeup articles (including other textiles’). Its quantity is not shown. In terms of dollars, its exports amounted to $86.90 million, down 4.04pc from previous year.

The category which depicts continued stagnation is ‘other manufactures’. Its exports ($422.99 million) fell 12.13pc from previous year. Its contribution to total exports also dropped to 14.51pc, compared to 16.43pc in July-September 2001.

According to details, exports of carpets, etc., fell (in dollars) by 6.08pc, sports goods by 3.80pc, tanned leather by 11.67pc, leather manufactures by 24.29pc, surgical goods by 22.41pc, cutlery by 29.58pc and onyx manufactures by 29.20pc.

There is some positive news too on this front. Chemicals and pharma products exports went up 88.73pc with total export of $59.93 million. The country also exported engineering goods for $13.56 million, up 16pc from previous year.

The Others, continuing their surge, increased their exports by 97.79pc to $275.90 million. Thus their share in overall exports jumped more than 4pc to 10.69pc, compared to the first quarter of previous year.

PRIMARY COMMODITIES: Rice, the top export item in this category, registered a decline of 29.68pc (quantity) from previous year. The quantity of rice exported during the period under review was 257,936 tons. But the price it fetched was only $370.08 per ton, compared to $621.77pc per ton during the previous year.