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ISLAMABAD, Jan 9: The exports of finished goods increased by 14.6 per cent during the period July-December 2003 as compared to the corresponding period of previous year , according to the advanced release of external trade statistics issued by the Federal Bureau of Statistics here on Friday.
These amounted to $5,381.92 million, accounting for 91.25 per cent of total exports ($5,580.79 million) as against 90.53 per cent during the first half of the previous financial year.
In their turn, the textile manufactures with exports worth $3,750.47 million constituted 69.69pc of finished goods' exports, down 1.40pc from the same period of previous year.
As the portion of total exports, the textile manufactures' exports raised their share from 56.88pc of the corresponding period to 63.78pc during the period under review.
More than one-third (33.44pc) of the total textile manufactures' exports came from the sale abroad of intermediate goods, that is, cotton yarn and cotton cloth with aggregate total of $1,254.04 million. This denotes an increase of 13.81pc.
Within this group, cotton yarn with exports worth $516.68 million surged by 10.78pc, despite 5.72pc quantitative drop. As regards cotton cloth, it is on top in terms of foreign exchange earnings ($737.55 million) with 4.25pc increase, quantity-wise.
As regards the finished goods proper, all of these except "readymade garments" continued their upward momentum, both in terms of quantity and quality. Thus the 30,040,000 dozens of knitwear items exported during the period under review, denoted 22.66pc increase. However, the accrual in foreign exchange ($679.52 million) was up by 23.77pc.
Bedwear (113,580 tons) fetched $634.89 million, which is 9.20pc more than the previous year against only 5.48pc increase. The exports of towels (42,266 tons) went up by 0.89pc, while the foreign exchange receipts ($163.94 million) on account thereof increased by 10.38pc.
The highest increase - 30.56pc - is reported in exports of tents, canvas and tarpaulin (13,944 tons). But the foreign exchange ($29.65 million) this category fetched was up by 24.67pc, denoting a substantial decrease in unit value.
Art, silk and synthetic textiles and made-up articles (including other textiles), of which no quantity is given in the FBS statement, registered an increase in foreign exchange receipts of 16.28pc and 24.30pc, respectively. The value of their exports, respectively, is shown as $286.66 million and $208.19 million. Readymade garments stand out as the category with negative performance. In quantity, these declined by 23.67pc and in valueby 6.24pc.
OTHER MANUFACTURES: Although the exports in this category, at $1042.63 million, were up by 3.65pc, their share in total exports registered further decline - from 19.35pc to 17.73pc.
In this group, most of the traditional exports continued to slide. Among these, petroleum crude ($17.95 million) declined by 33.14pc; sports goods ($142.08 million) by 4.14pc; tanned leather ($105.84 million) by 8.32pc; surgical goods and medical instruments ($59.57 million) by 20.13pc; cutlery ($14.04 million); and onyx (manufactured) ($5.85 million) by 4.54pc.
During the first half of 2003-04, however, positive growth is credited also to some of the traditional items. Thus the exports of carpets, rugs and mats with accrual of $115.27 million went up by 9.66pc, petroleum products ($102.74 million) by 43.56pc, leather manufactures ($233.61 million) by 6.80pc, and footwear ($38.52 million) by 0.64pc.
Among non-traditional categories, the combined exports of "engineering goods" and "chemicals and pharmaceutical products" amounted to $172.62 million, up 13.68pc from previous year. Their share in other manufactures, consequently, rose by 0.56pc to 16.56pc.
PRIMARY COMMODITIES: In this category, the exports stood at $498.87 million, denoting 1.32pc over the corresponding period of previous year. In this amount, major chunk - $308.71 million - was contributed by rice alone.
In quantity (903,756 tons), it exceeded the exports of the previous year by 17.28pc as against 28.52pc increase in value, indicating sizable improvement in unit value.
