KARACHI, June 5: The Polyester Staple Fibre Manufacturers Group (PSFMG) has said that the textile sector, instead of relying on government’s incentive package every year, must identify the real issues in order to improve its performance.

Issues of scale, lack of technical and marketing skills, professional management, continuous efficiency improvement systems and initiatives pertaining to energy consumption, wastages etc. are preventing them to compete effectively on the global stage, says a press release of PSFMG.

The textile sector must also recognise the fact that the survival of the entire chain depends on the availability of back-end raw materials.

The group said that the domestic PSF industry was capable of producing up to 3.9 million bales cotton equivalent and was responsible for foreign exchange savings of up to $250 million.

PSFMG, while reacting to reports, which misrepresents facts pertaining to the PSF import tariff and its impact through the textile chain, said that the survival of the entire domestic textile chain depends heavily on the survival of each member of the chain. Allegations have been made by certain quarters within the textile sector, which are far from the ground reality.

Prices of PSF in Pakistan are at the lower end in the region as the average domestic prices of PSF in the calendar year 2007 were Rs95.6/kg in India, Rs92.3/kg in China, and in Pakistan at Rs90.4/kg.

PSF industries in each of these countries are protected by similar levels of import tariff (no zero tariff in any of these countries).

Exports in Pakistan are actually zero rated as the domestic textile downstream enjoys the facility of DTRE through the entire chain.

The domestic PSF industry has, in the past, introduced numerous specialty variants of PSF, however, the textile downstream was simply not equipped to successfully produce and market specialty products, which would utilise these variants.

The PSF per capita mill consumption of Pakistan is actually higher at 3.12kg compared to 0.64kg in India, it added.