BKMEA fears bad days ahead

---

The country's small and medium industries under knitwear sector will collapse if the prices of yarn do not come down, the BKMEA president warned Saturday, reports bdnews24.com.
President of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Fazlul Hoque said sharp rise in the yarn prices would badly hurt them, as they would not be able to face the international market competition.
"The price of a kilogram yarn increased by 80 cents to $2.25-$3.10 in last two-and-a-half-months. This means a 15 to 20 per cent hike in the production cost," he said.
The BKMEA president was addressing a news conference in the capital on the occasion of "2nd worker festival" to be held on December 18 in Narayanganj.
"Yarn prices have increased by eight to 10 cents a kilogram in the international market due to the price hike of cotton. And our local yarn mills owners have hiked the yarn prices up to 80 cents. This is illogical."
He said the yarn price hike had emerged as a new crisis in the knitwear sector, which had already been facing negative growth due to global recession for the last several months. The industry, however, saw a positive growth in October.