“Pakistan’s textile industry annually consumes 2.7m tons of raw cotton, but last year raw cotton production in the country remained at 2.1m tons. The shortage pushed cotton prices in the domestic market by 90% from the start of the crop season in September last year .
“Around 70% of the textile industry in the country uses gas to generate its own electricity, and rest 30% mostly in remote areas run on electricity provided by the state-owned electricity company .
“Self-generated electricity costs around 35% less than the state-owned electricity. Textile plants using state-owned electricity are becoming growingly uncompetitive due to further increase in electricity tariff by 6% and increased raw cotton prices in the country .
“Gohar Ejaz, chairman of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) told just-style that the industry has been losing business to its global competitors due to 15% duty on the export of yarns and soaring raw cotton prices in the country and textile mills are unable to import cotton at international prices .
Date:7/2/2010
Source:Reuters