Pakistan : Textile sector exports may go off target

The major industrial sector in Pakistan, textile is unlikely to reach exports target for year 2004-05. The Ministry of Commerce and Export Promotion Bureau had anticipated the target of textile exports about $9.2 billion after talks with textile stakeholders. The textile exports reach $830 million in the month of May 2005, depicting of elevation when matching to the exports of $782 million exports in April 2005 and 650 million dollars in May last year. An Export Promotion Bureau official informed that the textile exports are suspected not to cross the fixed hurdle of one billion dollars. The interim report of textile exports for the month of June would be available in next couple of days, he added. The EPB official explained that in 11 months of fiscal year 2005 the exports of cotton yarn, fabrics, apparel & clothing and made-up textile products have been substantial increased. Total exports climb by $12.72 billion in 11 months of last fiscal as against $10.87 billion in the same period of its previous fiscal year, indicating an total jump of $1.85 billion. Sources in textile industry informed that the factors behind the incredible rise are abolition of quotas and the increase in domestic cotton crop, besides decline of 40-50 percent in its costs, proved favourable for the domestic industry. However, Pakistani exporters has to face cutthroat competition with its other regional majors like China, India and Bangladesh, but the competitiveness and quality in yarn, fabrics, clothing, knitwear, bed linen has been enhanced the exports in last fiscal year.

Pakistan : Jute & polypropylene makers compete for order

To obtain order of sacks for storing 5 million tons of wheat, jute mills and polypropylene manufactures are in competition.

Purchase of sacks will be an expensive job as about five hundred million of sacks with storing capacity of 100 kilograms each will be required for stocking wheat.

At present, a jute bag of 100 kilogram capacity will cost PRK60 to 70, while polypropylene bags are of PRK20.

However, Government prefers jute bags as they are environment-friendly and could be reused two to three times.

Moreover, those who are against polypropylene bags believe that it deteriorates quality of wheat, while those opposing jute bags claim that they fail to protect wheat from rats leading to loss of four to five percent of soaked wheat per annum.

Experts have urged the Government to conduct a detail study on cost and advantages before purchasing bags for stocking wheat.

At the time of harvest every year, Punjab Government usually procures 3 to 3.5 million tons of wheat.

Similarly, Food Department of Sindh and PASSCO procure one million tons each during this period.

Govt committed to value added apparel sector – Textile Minister

The Textile Minister, Mr Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan, said that garments sector is considered the most profitable as compared to other textile sub-sectors and that the government is committed to make it centre of value added manufacturing goods. He conveyed this message in a meeting with representatives of the apparel manufacturing sector. He said the importance of the clothing sector has been highlighted in the recently released textile policy, but lamented that the sector was allowed to languish since so many years. He also said that the government is focusing on providing trained manpower and vocational training institutes are being set up for this purpose where modern and up-dated education and skill training would be imparted. He added by saying that the government is committed to make apparel manufacturing as centre of value added manufacturing goods and for this purpose special arrangements would be made for fashion, designing, brand and especially marketing. He concluded by saying that special incentives would be given, and product development centers would also be constituted for the promotion of this sector. The delegation also complimented him for announcing the first ever textile policy.

Pakistan : Govt plans policies to boost textile industry

Mushtaq Ali Cheema, Federal Minister for Textile Industry, while attending a press meet on June 4, said that Government has decided to enforce policies to boost the textile industry’s export.

In order to face competition in the international market efficiently, the industry need to pay heed towards the development of skill, enhance productivity, manufacturing cost reduction.

The Textile Minister emphasized that the textile industry should organize itself and attract big investors or orders from abroad, so that the weaving sector, which is performing below its capacity, can flourish.

Cheema revealed that textile policies would be approved by the the first week of July.

According to the Minister, Government plans to introduce a complete policy for this industry so that all the sectors and sub-sectors should work in unison.

The Textile Ministry plans to establish garment cities within in next two to three years. The one in Karachi would start in Pakistan Textile City Limited and in Lahore it would be set up in Sundar Industrial State.

Islamabad hosts educational workshop on traditional crafts

A series of workshop demonstrating a variety of specialized craft by connoisseur artists was hosted in Heritage Museum Islamabad on March 31. The event whose first session started off with block printing and paper mache technique will continue till April 7. Assisted by Cosmos Productions, the ‘Artisan workshops on skills training’ has been organized by Lok Virsa under its museum educational program. Subject for the following sessions will be wax printing, wood carving, pottery, embroidery, lacquer work, and weaving. These fabulous workshops aim to revive traditional skills by making the youth aware about the beauty of long-standing culture and practices. The session on block printing and paper mache will be taken over by Ameer Bukhsh from Karor Pacca and Zulfiqar Ali Ghazi from Kashmir respectively. Lahore is one of the biggest commercial centers for block printing and the art is known to depict animals, birds and floral patterns in arched frames and involve the use of traditional color combinations peculiar to the decorative style of Moghul tiles and paintings. Bloch printing still remains as the only contemporary textile medium which retains its dependence on natural dyes. Paper mache on the other hand, displays exquisite miniature designs and motifs on various articles like masks which are painted with vibrant colors, depicting intricate foliage patterns, natural scenery and hunting scenes and meticulous craftsmanship.

Gas load-shedding: Devastating for textile industry

Lack of regular gas supply to the textile industry forced it to face losses of about Rs. one billion in a month, said the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). Moreover, the scheduled, two-day load-management of gas compelled around 200 textile units in Punjab and NWFP Zones to close down about.

Mr. Guhar Ijaz, Chairman, APTMA Punjab said that the gas supply to the industry was not according to the schedule that already had been prepared by the Textile Ministry with stakeholders, as the two-day load-shedding in a week, which had been decided for textile industry, has now been increased up to four-days, he added.

The industry would suffer more losses along with further closure of textile units, if the gas supply is extending from 8 to 15 days a month, apprehended the Chairman. In order to share gas load-shedding on equitable basis, the association had divided the industrial units of Punjab and NWFP in to four zones.

Articles about textile industry

Cut Resistance Behaviour of Fibres
By  : Dr. C. Rameshkumar & Dr. N. Anbumani

 cut resistant fabrics are made with polymeric and non polymeric high performance fibres such as high tenacity polyester, nylon, loyotropic polymer fibres, gel spun fibres and thermotropic liquid crystal polymer fibres. New products are also made with core and wrapped yarns by suitable combination of specialty fibres and yarns in different fabric weaves.

There is a continuing need for fabrics that resist cuts and abrasions, which occur when a sharp edge of a knife, a tool having a sharp edge or items having sharp edges are encountered. Cut resistant fabrics are particularly useful for making protective clothing such as gloves used in meat cutting industry and for handling metal/glass articles, in manufacture of sports wear, in automobile upholstery and for packaging materials.

Cut resistant fabrics are made with polymeric and non polymeric high performance fibres such as high tenacity polyester, nylon, loyotropic polymer fibres, gel spun fibres and thermotropic liquid crystal polymer fibres. New products are also made with core and wrapped yarns by suitable combination of specialty fibres and yarns in different fabric weaves.

The level of cut resistance provided by the reinforcing yarns depends on the way in which they are incorporated in the textile substrate. With regard to many different fabric manufacturing techniques available, a large number of alternatives for developing cut resistant textiles are feasible.

Cut resistance is the property demonstrated by a material or combination of materials, when a sharp-edged device initiates cut through. In general, there are two types of cut hazards: (1) Sharp edge cuts, such as knife blades and clean edge sheet glass and (2) Abrasive cut hazards; these include rough edge sheet metal, stamped or punched sheet metal, and rough edged sheet glass.

Duty free access from ROZ’s a non-starter - Experts

Mr Barrack Obama, President of the United States, had recently declared that the US would provide tariff free access to textile and apparel products manufactured on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border regions to be called Reconstruction Opportunity Zones (ROZ’s
He had also added by saying that the cwould be provided on select textile and apparel products irrespective of the origin of the raw materials used in these products. This he said would go a long way in generating employment in the region.

But the textile and clothing industry in Pakistan is far from excited on hearing the proposal. Experts aver that, there is not a single unit remotely connected to the sector in the border areas, so this policy would be a non-starter in the short term.

One more drawback that the policy carries, say experts, is that, it excludes the largest variety of products that is exported to the US; Cotton knit shirts and cotton trousers which account for 90 percent of all exports from the sector to the US.

The bill also carries with it stringent labour law standards, the adherence to which would be one of the key parameters to getting the duty free access for these products and the Pakistan government would need to file regular reports on the observance of these norms.