The decline in quantity, according to industry experts, is due to a drop in productivity and availability of surplus capacities. They say this is also indicative of the number of jobs that have been lost in the textile sector since 2006-07. It has been found that average monthly yarn sales in 2006-07 were 55,460 kg while yarn exports from September 2008 to February 2009 varied between 38,738 kg and 43,464 kg. On average, exports in quantity terms declined by 21.63 per cent since attaining their peak two years ago. Many spinning units have closed down due to the decline in yarn purchase…The decline is not restricted to quantity only, per unit prices of yarn have dropped appreciably during the current fiscal year. In value terms, Pakistan exported 43,054 kg of yarn for $102.66 million while in February 2009 43,464 kg of yarn fetched only $78.151 million, indicating a fall of 24 per cent…In case of fabric, the situation is worse. In 2006-07, Pakistan exported an average of 184,320 square metres of cotton cloth. However, it exported 188,875 square yards of fabric in September 2008, 165,934 square yards in October 2008, 166,545 square yards in November 2008, 132,868 square yards in December 2008, 122,650 square yards in January 2009 and 108,635 square yards in February 2009. There has been a constant decline in fabric exports even during this fiscal…Average monthly fall in fabric exports in terms of quantity since the reference year of 2006-07 comes to 41.06 per cent. In value terms, the decline in fabric exports since September 2008 is 37 per cent. In September 2008, Pakistan fetched $183.576 million from fabric exports that were reduced to $116.226 million in February 2009. The huge decline in quantity means that large number of lay offs and reduced value has definitely impacted the viability of weaving mills…Knitwear industry resisted bravely against export pressures, but has caved in since January 2009. In the year 2006-07, average monthly knitwear exports were 7852000 dozen. The knitwear exports were 9942000 dozen n September 2008, 8738000 dozen in October 2008, 9037000 dozen in November 2008, 6525000 dozen in December 2008, 6899000 dozen in January 2009 and 5617000 dozen in February 2009. The decline since 2006-07 is 28.46 per cent in quantity terms but the decline since September 2008 is more than 42 per cent…The decline of knitwear exports in quantity terms is reflected from the closure of over 40 per cent of the knitwear industry, including some big state-of-the-art units. In value terms, knitwear exports have declined by 34 per cent since September 2008…Readymade garments have recovered the loss from the 42.71 per cent drop in exports in quantity terms since 2006-07 by increasing per unit value of exports. But reduction in quantity certainly means pruning of a large number of employees. In value terms, exports of the readymade garment industry declined by only 3 per cent since September 2008…In September 2008, readymade garments fetched 99.952 million on the export of 3704000 dozen garments. In February 2008, exports worth $96.692 million came from the export of only 2122000 dozen garments. Average monthly towel exports declined by 34 per cent in quantity terms since 2007-06, tents and canvas exports reduced by 29 per cent and art silk and synthetic textile exports by 58 per cent…………

Date:4/18/2009

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