Skyrocketing cotton prices: 150 hosiery units stop production in Pakistan
Thursday, 15 November 2007
The skyrocketing prices of cotton yarn have brought the productions in some 150 industrial units of the hosiery sector to a complete standstill, causing million of rupees losses everyday, hosiery manufacturers said on Tuesday.
The lower cotton production below the target that was set at about 14 million bales for this year, later scaling down after government's revision of the crops to 12.8 million bales and now only 10.5 million bales are expected to reach the industrial units.
"The unseasonal rains, onset of mealy bug and cotton leaf curl virus on the standing cotton crop are the primary factors pulling down its production in the country, consequently striking the textile production badly," they added.
The low domestic cotton production has given rise to the prices and demand of cotton yarn - a finished cotton product for textile fabrics that surged by 30 percent in only three months, phenomenally, they observed.
The raw cotton price has shot up to Rs 3,250 per maund from Rs 2,600 per maund that spurred the price of average quality of cotton yarn to Rs 57.5 per pound from Rs 50 per pound, whereas the best quality is traded at Rs 60 per pound, they said.
"This increase in the prices of cotton yarn followed by cotton was unjustified and occurred only in the last three months," they pointed out. A large-scale unemployment is haunted by further closure of industrial units, as many of them could be skilled and unskilled women workers, the manufacturers expressed fears.
They said that government's policies were on the wrong path and having no worth for entire textile sector, adding fiscal export targets were a distant dream to achieve due to lack of supportive policies for boosting up trade.
There are about 1,200 hosiery manufacturing units in the country, mainly located in industrial zones of Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, as 150 of them had come to closure while the rest are at the high risk of closure, they maintained.
"Government is demanded to provide support to textile industry - the backbone of country's economy and any negligence from it in this connection could cause severe financial losses," they warned.
Expressing regrets, hosiery manufacturers said that they had not yet come out of financial losses inflicted on them by the political turmoil in the country, the onset of increasing prices of cotton yarn had hit the production badly bringing it to a complete halt. "We were placing export orders abroad with the international buyers due to which we suffered huge financial losses, now the cotton yarn prices brought industrial units on the verge of collapse," they said.
They demanded of the government to recover huge stocks of cotton yarn from hoarderers on priority basis to salvage the hosiery sector from plunging completing. Government should also allow the medium and short staple cotton yarn from India and Central Asian countries to meet the local industrial demand, they maintained. — Internet
The lower cotton production below the target that was set at about 14 million bales for this year, later scaling down after government's revision of the crops to 12.8 million bales and now only 10.5 million bales are expected to reach the industrial units.
"The unseasonal rains, onset of mealy bug and cotton leaf curl virus on the standing cotton crop are the primary factors pulling down its production in the country, consequently striking the textile production badly," they added.
The low domestic cotton production has given rise to the prices and demand of cotton yarn - a finished cotton product for textile fabrics that surged by 30 percent in only three months, phenomenally, they observed.
The raw cotton price has shot up to Rs 3,250 per maund from Rs 2,600 per maund that spurred the price of average quality of cotton yarn to Rs 57.5 per pound from Rs 50 per pound, whereas the best quality is traded at Rs 60 per pound, they said.
"This increase in the prices of cotton yarn followed by cotton was unjustified and occurred only in the last three months," they pointed out. A large-scale unemployment is haunted by further closure of industrial units, as many of them could be skilled and unskilled women workers, the manufacturers expressed fears.
They said that government's policies were on the wrong path and having no worth for entire textile sector, adding fiscal export targets were a distant dream to achieve due to lack of supportive policies for boosting up trade.
There are about 1,200 hosiery manufacturing units in the country, mainly located in industrial zones of Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, as 150 of them had come to closure while the rest are at the high risk of closure, they maintained.
"Government is demanded to provide support to textile industry - the backbone of country's economy and any negligence from it in this connection could cause severe financial losses," they warned.
Expressing regrets, hosiery manufacturers said that they had not yet come out of financial losses inflicted on them by the political turmoil in the country, the onset of increasing prices of cotton yarn had hit the production badly bringing it to a complete halt. "We were placing export orders abroad with the international buyers due to which we suffered huge financial losses, now the cotton yarn prices brought industrial units on the verge of collapse," they said.
They demanded of the government to recover huge stocks of cotton yarn from hoarderers on priority basis to salvage the hosiery sector from plunging completing. Government should also allow the medium and short staple cotton yarn from India and Central Asian countries to meet the local industrial demand, they maintained. — Internet