FAISALABAD, Jan 8: Power loadshedding has severely affected industrial production and industrialists apprehend that it might delay export consignments. The industrialists say that they are facing great difficulties in view of power outages, gas supply suspension and Wasa shutdown schedules. They say persistent power loadshedding has compelled them to revise their business strategies, which may leave a number of labourers jobless.

Faisalabad district has a mushroom growth of power looms where thousands of labourers work on a contract basis. Power loadshedding means drop in production, which ultimately affects the workers.

Faisalabad is commonly known as capital of textile industry. The whole of the city district is replete with textile units of different kinds.

The units with their number are as follow: textile spinning mills 63, power looms (standard and auto) 302, 143, shuttle looms/air jet looms 6,700, textile processing, printing and finishing mills 254, sizing industries 126, hosiery and knitwear units (small, medium and large) 1,513, sugar mills six, foundry 110, power generation eight, rice mills 24, soap and sodium silicate 14, textile machinery 23, fertiliser two, pipes one, starch one, oil mills 42, vegetable ghee five, chemical two, soap detergent 34, flour mills 33, poultry feeds/animals six, pharmaceutical five, light engineering 51, agricultural implements 22. Twenty seven other miscellaneous sizeable units are also working in the district.

The sizing sector is considered to be the backbone of the textile industry. Weaving, dying, processing, and bleaching are key features of the industry. A sizing boiler takes two hours to become operational again once it stops working for half an hour. Power suspension for 30 minutes means two-and-a-half hour loadshedding for this sector.

Fesco is finding it difficult to run its routine affairs because of a 200-megawatt shortage.

The Fesco chief held a meeting with members of the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry the other day and briefed the industrialists on power loadshedding, asking them to go for staggered holidays so that the industry could be saved from financial losses.

Sources in the meeting said the industrialists had expressed their grave concern over power outages and feared a loss of billions of rupees. They said prior to loadshedding it was required on the part of the company to evolve a comprehensive strategy in league with them. They said power outages at night would increase crime rate in the posh areas. They also demanded uninterrupted power supply, as they were already getting short gas supplies.

Representatives of processing, foundry, sizing, yarn merchants, Khurrianwala industrial estate, food industry, weaving and other associations were present.

Faisalabad chamber’s standing committee on power looms chairman Waheed Ramay said owing to business stress, a number of people had closed down their businesses, which led to an increase in unemployment in the district. He said power loadshedding would aggravate the situation.

All Pakistan Textile Sizing Industries Association chairman Mirza Shafiq said that owing to the ill-conceived policies the textile industry was dying. We have to follow the policies to run our businesses and escape from the wrath of government functionaries, he said. He said power loadshedding would definitely delay export consignments. He said the government was extending 25 per cent electricity rebate to the industrialists in the NWFP while the province, which contributes a lot to the national exchequer, was denied the facility.

An exporter, Nasir Hanif, said that the production cost had already increased because of lack of a level-playing field, putting Pakistani exporters in a mind-boggling situation where they were unable to cope with the challenges of international market.

He said Pakistan’s textile industry was overburdened with taxes of different kind and surcharges and power loadshedding proved to be another blow. Pakistan’s exports have been declining for the last 15 months and textile crisis will damage the economy, he said.

Another exporter Sheikh Khurram said the government was providing gas to fertiliser industry at Rs92 per MMBTU (Million British Thermal Unit) on the contrary the textile industry had to get it at Rs270 per MMBTU, which showed the step-motherly attitude towards the textile industry. On the contrary, he said unscheduled power loadshedding and suspension of gas supply had put the exporters in an outlandish situation, forcing them to wrap up their businesses.

When contacted, FESCO chief executive Tariq Rasool said that the company was doing its utmost to save industrial production.

“We get 20-megawats electricity from two private companies. And soon the capacity will be enhanced to 40-megawat, as discussions are underway.”

He said the company had evolved a strategy in league with the local industrialists to provide maximum electricity to the industry.