GUJRAT: High gas prices have forced owners of almost half of local pottery-manufacturing units to shut their operations at a time when demand of their products is usually high.
The natural gas is one of the major raw materials for the pottery and ceramics industry of Gujrat and Gujranwala, which employs 40,000 people and mainly produces tea mugs, milk mugs and tea sets.
“At a time when the local pottery industry should have been reaping the benefit of certain levies on the import of pottery products from China, at least 50 to 60 manufacturing units in Gujrat city have suspended production only due to the high prices of gas (to the industry),” says a local pottery manufacturer.
The Gujrat-based pottery industry is considered as a cottage industry that does not have capacity to sustain the pressure of high prices of raw material as currently the rate of gas is around Rs 3,400 per MMBTU and with addition of taxes imposed on the gas bills the rate soars to around Rs 4,000 MMBTU, says Haji Zahid, Chairman of the All Pakistan Pottery Manufacturers Association.
He said the pottery industry could not sustain a rate above Rs 1,500 MMBTU as the electricity prices were too high.
He said there were some 130 units in Gujrat out of which at least 50 had shut the operations, whereas at least five factories had also been sold after the owners left the business.
He said the depreciation in the value of Pakistani currency, uncertainty and political instability had been proving poisonous for the cottage industry.Imran Zafar whose family has been associated with the sector since the creation of Pakistan, said that the gas prices had increased due to the injection of RLNG (imported gas) into the main supply lines but now most of the units in operation were using LPG.
Two-time MPA from the the PML-N platform, Mr Zafar said several pottery units had initiated exports to some African and Central Asian countries as well as Afghanistan which should be encouraged by bringing the prices of fuel down.
Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2022
