ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s export of textile and clothing plunged for the fourth consecutive month in January this year from a year ago, as continuing global recession cut demand from key markets, like Europe and United States.
Chairman, All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma), Mohsin Aziz, observed on Friday that export target of $16 billion projected for textile and clothing for the current year would not be achieved.
“Even things are so worse for these sectors that their exports will remain below $12 billion mark by the end of June 2012”, Mr Aziz told Dawn.
He also cited domestic reasons, including energy shortages, for drop in export proceeds.
Last year, export of textile and clothing sector crossed the mark of $14 billion.
Textile and clothing sectors exports fell to $982.418 million in January 2012, showing a decline by over 16 per cent, from $1.180 billion over the same month last year, suggested data of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics on Friday.
Overall volume of textile and clothing in the first seven months (July-Jan) also fell to $6.936 billion, a decline of 6.73 per cent, from $7.436 billion over the corresponding period last year.
Local manufacturers have projected a 25 per cent drop this year alone to Europe due to the eurozone debt crisis.
They fear that shrinking export proceeds in the sector may also result in layoffs.
Over 12 per cent decline was also witnessed in terms of rupee despite depreciation of rupee against the dollar in the past few months, indicating that the fall in the health of rupee did not support Pakistani textile and clothing products to penetrate in the international markets.
A sector-wise analysis shows negative growth in export of cotton yarn, cotton cloth, cotton carded, tents, art and silk, made-up articles in January this year over last year. A similar dip was witnessed in exports of knitwear, bed-wear, towels and value-added products.
However, export of raw cotton, tents and yarn other than cotton yarn witnessed growth during January over the same month last year.
A paltry growth was also recorded in export of garments, value-added products during the month under review.
Former Chairman Pakistan Readymade Garments Association, Masood Naqi, told Dawn that the slight growth in garment was artificial as local manufacturers shipped those products in January, orders for which were placed much before October 2011.
Foreign buyers withheld their orders from shipment, which were lying in warehouses of local manufacturers since October 2011.
Such a growth, he said, would also be visible in export proceeds in the month of February, he said.
Mr Naqi projected that there was also a possibility for a growth in value-added products following approval of 75 products by the European Union for duty-free import from Pakistan.
At the same time, he said the proposed move of generalised system of preferences by the EU also created prospects for growth in exports to European market.
He said that China was a biggest buyer of cotton from US and India. He said that the increase in raw cotton exports show a higher demand for cotton in China and Bangladesh.
At the same time, there was a significant decline in import of machinery in the value-added sector to increase quality and capacity of production.
Mr Aziz said that buyers were still there but the domestic industry was not in a position to honour their orders because of high cost of production. The government, he said, should take notice of these issues, otherwise it would lead to collapse of the industry.
The government has projected an export target of $25.618 billion for 2011-12. Going by the export performance in the past four months, Pakistan is unlikely to meet the export target.
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