PAKISTAN: Cotton Shortage Forces Textile Plant Closures.
More than 20 textile plants in Pakistan have closed down their operations since last one month due to shortage of raw cotton, high energy and raw material cost, and restrictions on the exports of yarns from the country.
Egytex News Desk
Source: http://www.just-style.com
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.
Source: http://www.just-style.com
From the Egytex news archive, first published on 2 July 2010. Figures and names are as reported at the time.
