Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has written a letter to resolve the issue of container offloading at Karachi port. Textile mills have to pay millions of rupees in demurrages due to the delay in clearance and offloading of cotton consignments at the Karachi Port by the Plant Protection Department.
APTMA has urged the Ministry of National Food Security and Research and Plant Protection Department, director-general, Karachi, to effectively play their role in getting containers offloaded and returned on time. As many as 25 textile mills have faced these issues at the port, and 22 mills managed to get their containers offloaded after a lapse of many weeks out of these. However, three mills were still running pillar to post because of delays in getting their containers, having 1,988 bales of cotton cleared and offloaded.
“Textile sector that over-performed with $20.5 billion exports in the first eight months of the current financial year is facing massive delay in importing cotton. The letter read that their containers are not allowed to get cleared and offloaded on time at the Karachi Port,” the letter read. Resultantly, textile mills were being forced to pay millions of rupees in the shape of demurrages, an APTMA letter written to the secretary of the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
Since Pakistan was cotton deficient, the textile industry had no choice but to import raw material from various countries to meet export targets. However, since there were delays at the port, “even shipping lines were becoming evasive about bringing imported raw material to Pakistan.” For example, Fazal Cloth Mills Limited Multan imported 500 bales of cotton from Sudan, but its shipment has been stopped at Karachi Port since October 2021. The mill was incurring heavy demurrages and container detention. The company obtained an import permit (IP) on November 16, 2020, prior to the shipment, but due to a delay in shipment because of the war situation in Sudan, IP expired on May 16, 2021.
There is a strong need to resolve such issues to compete with our neighbors. A proper mechanism should be defined to facilitate the local textile sector.
