KARACHI, Nov 14: As China continues to gain increasing Pakistani share in the US market for home textiles, local exporters are concerned at Chinese advancement at their cost.

In the first half of 2007, US import of cotton bed-sheets from China surged 53.65 per cent in volume terms in category 361.

According to preliminary data released by the US department of commerce, China continued to gain share in US import market for home textiles in the first half.

A local leader and exporter of home textile said if the market is lost, it would become next to impossible for Pakistan to recapture it.

Most disturbing is the fact that China is still faced with ceiling, and yet it managed to penetrate in the US market.

The US department of commerce further revealed that in the same period, shipments from Pakistan rose only 1.55 per cent.

Total import of cotton bed-sheets was up by 1.17 per cent.

As a result, China’s share of US import market jumped from 26 to 34 per cent while Pakistani share fell from 41 per cent to 36 per cent.

The report further disclosed that rising security concerns in Pakistan may partly explain the decision by the US buyers to further shift to China.

It also suggested that higher costs and prices in the country may also be behind the decline.

Against this, import of cotton bed-sheets from India rose 33 per cent in the first half with India’s share slightly up to 11 per cent.

On the much smaller market for cotton pillowcases (category 360), Pakistan faced the same difficulties with a 1.75 per cent decline in US import in the first half, compared with a surge of 61 per cent in shipments from China.

Shabir Ahmed, chairman, Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association (PBEA), said our exporters are losing market owing to cost factor, and if the government fails to take corrective measures, more units involved in manufacture of home textile would close down.He pointed out that high utility tariff, double digit markup rates and soaring raw cotton prices owing to short crop are such factors which, if not checked, would ultimately result in large-scale closures.

Mr Shabir said already many units involved in production of home textile have closed down and their main problem was high cost of production.

He said a businessman or an entrepreneur may move to another business but what about the workforce which would be rendered jobless in the process.

“Our buyers have stopped visiting Pakistan and we have to go abroad to hold meetings and get our samples and designs approved which further add to our cost,” he lamented.

The government has failed on account of estimating crop size which was earlier estimated at 14.8 million bales and this led to soaring prices in the domestic market, he added.