April 08, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 19, 2007

KARACHI, April 7: Generator market players anticipate good sales this summer following surge in demand as electricity providers have already resorted to unannounced power outages across the country.

For meeting the demand, the dealers have already been piling up stocks expecting more buyers this season as compared to last year.

As a result, imports of power generating machineries have recorded a jump of 48 per cent in July-February 2006-2007 to $473 million as compared to $320 million the same period last year, data of Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) showed.

About 40 per cent out of the total generator imports is intended for Karachi alone and 60pc for rest of the country, mainly in Punjab areas where power failures have been on the rise.

The arrival of buyers in the market now depends on the duration of loadshedding. Initially the KESC has resorted to two to three hours breakdowns these days. Buyers’ presence will increase if the KESC commences four to six hours power breakdowns.

The phenomenal leap in power breakdowns can be blamed for pushing up imports of power generating machineries.

For the last three days the generator market near Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) building had been witnessing rush of buyers.

President Karachi Machinery Merchants Group (KMMG) Sikandar Shahzada recalled that last year the KESC had started playing havoc with power supply from February. “This year it has started loadsheddings from late March in various localities for two to three hours”.

He said generator buyers were now well aware of the past halfhearted response of the government in handling the power issue. “They have lost their hope for getting any relief and are coming in the markets to buy the generators since generators have now become an essential part of their daily lives”.

The entry of low-priced Chinese generators has really proved a big relief for the customers in combating the power crisis otherwise imports would have not gone up much higher in the recent years.

However, the market share of Chinese generators has dropped to 60 per cent this year from 85-90 per cent last year while the market share of Japanese generators, which used to be 10 per cent last year, has surged to 20 per cent due to increase in imports as yen has lost its strength against the dollar.

He said that smuggled generators were also arriving from Afghanistan but they hardly hold five per cent of the market share in Karachi as they were mainly available in NWFP, Lahore and Balochistan.

He said quality-conscious rich class preferred to buy Japanese generators mainly sound-proof while Chinese generators had been luring low and middle income bracket people.

However, Mr Sikandar said four qualities of Chinese generators (A, B, C and D) were now available in the market.

A good quality 2KVA Chinese generator (petrol) can be purchased at Rs10,000 as compared to Rs30,000 (Japanese made). A 5KVA Chinese generator is priced at Rs30,000 as compared to Rs80,000 for Japanese brand. A 10KVA Chinese generator sells at Rs100,000 as compared to Rs210,000 for Japanese product.

In diesel, (mainly sound proof) Chinese generator of 5KVA carries price tag of Rs50,000 as compared to Rs175,000 for Japanese brand. A 12KVA generator is priced at Rs160,000 as against Rs380,000 for Japanese made.

In gas category, 5KVA Chinese generator is selling at Rs50,000 while Japanese brand costs Rs110,000. A 2KVA Chinese gas generator is available at Rs20,000 while Japanese brand costs Rs34,000.

“There is a marked difference between Chinese and Japanese and European generators but people prefer Chinese generators because of low prices,” he said.

He claimed that there had been no price hike in generators compared to last year as import duty was low at 10 per cent. However, the government had lowered the income tax rate to one per cent from six per cent last year while sales tax was exempted.

He said that 70 per cent market share was enjoyed by petrol generators because of low price followed by 15 per cent each by gas and diesel generators.

He said that many people were installing gas kit in their petrol generators to offset the operational cost that had been rising owing to increase in petrol prices.