ISLAMABAD, March 10: Imports of machinery group jumped by 23.68 per cent to nearly $2201.33 million during the period July-February, 2002-04, as compared to corresponding period of previous year.
This raised their share in overall imports ($9093.84 million) to 24.21pc from 22.94pc, according to the foreign trade figures made available by the Federal Bureau of Statistics.
A closer look at the composition of machinery group, however, shows that the accelerated imports of all its constituents may not necessarily signify improvement in production activities.
In many cases, this may rather be due to the traders's eagerness to take maximum advantage of the reduced tariffs on finished goods - mainly consumables, etc. The 1.12pc increase in imports of power generating machinery ($181.99 million) may be explained by the maintenance needs of the thermal power generation machines established by the private sector.
The same compulsion may be at the root of import of office machines including data processing equipment ($135.38 million) and electrical machinery ($153.39 million). According to FBS figures, their imports are up by 4.64pc and 7.91pc, respectively.
Likewise, the import of roadmotor vehicles surged by as much as 29.87pc during the period under review. Their import bill stood at $406.88 million. This raised their share in machinery group import bill to 18.48pc, as against 17.60pc of the same period of 2002-03.
Nevertheless, some categories of imports in this group, which might be considered as indicator of substantive production activity, also showed some liveliness.
These are textile machinery, construction & mining machinery. With import bill shown as $363.38 million and $60.71 million, their imports went up by 11.28pc and 1.87pc, respectively. Machinery group also includes others, whose import bill ($770.53 million) shot up by 38.30pc.
PETROLEUM GROUP: A substantial downturn in imports of this group is reported in FBS statement. Its import bill stood at $1852.29 million, down 9.71pc from the corresponding period. But the negativity is only due to 28.63pc reduction in imports of petroleum products (nearly $810.88 million).
Another item in this group is petroleum crude the import of which rose by 7.63pc to 49,64,081 tons. Its import bill was $1041.42 million, constituting 11.45pc of the total import bill. During the corresponding period, it may be noted, the share of petroleum crude was 11.80pc.
TEXTILE GROUP: Comprising synthetic fibre, synthetic & artificial silk yarn and worn clothing, the import bill of this group ($172.81 million) increased by 15.86pc over the corresponding period. Only worn clothing with imports worth $24.65 million, declined by 2.04pc, while both the other sub- categories registered significantly high growth rates.
AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER CHEMICALS GROUP: Its imports (worth $1718.54 million) recorded an increase of 23.68pc, raising its share in overall import bill to 18.90pc, up 0.99pc from corresponding period.
Within this group, import of fertilizers beat a retreat. Quantity-wise, the 873,993 tons import during the period under review denoted a decline of 17.91pc. But all the other sub- categories showed upsurge.
Among these are plastic materials of which 384,616 tons were imported during the 8-month period under review, up 13.61pc over the corresponding period. Medicinal products imports (6,534 tons) went up by 16.53pc.
But the most dramatic was 53.03pc increase in imports of insecticides to 245,565 tons, fetching $74.01 million registering 75.29pc increase. Metal Group and Miscellaneous group, which include mainly industrial inputs, surged by 29.88pc during the period under review.
In aggregate, their import bill was $659.96 million - $151.82 million more than during the corresponding period. Due to quantum jump in imports of other groups of items, however, their share in overall import bill dropped to 6.55pc from 7.26pc.
FOOD GROUP: The import of this group stood at $682.18 million, up 6.96pc from the corresponding year. Even so, its share in overall import bill slid to 7.50pc, as against of 8.22pc of July-February, 2002-03.
As usual, major constituents of this group are the edible oils, soyabean and palm. Their aggregate cost ($451.36 million) was up by more than a quarter of corresponding period. And their share in food group import bill was up from 56.50pc to 66.16pc. The country also imported 67,378 tons of wheat and 79,932 tons of tea.