For Pakistan, outbound shipments are growing at a faster pace than Bangladesh and India as textiles, which account for half of the total export, led the recovery, data show. Islamabad is seeing total shipments grow 7%, compared with New Delhi’s 6% and Dhaka’s 3.5%.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration is the first in the region to ease pandemic restrictions, allowing export units to reopen in April, a month after locking them down to stem the spread of Covid-19. That’s helped draw companies from Guess? Inc., Hugo Boss AG, Target Corp. and Hanesbrands Inc. to the South Asian nation, according to people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity since details about buyers is private.
Even as lockdown curbs disrupted trade in India and Bangladesh for at least two months beginning late March, Pakistan was already making face masks and personal protective gear for export. The South Asian nation also gained some orders from companies looking to diversify their supply chains amid the trade war between the U.S. and China, the world’s top textile exporter, despite factories there reopening as early as April.
Executives from Nishat Mills and Interloop Ltd., one of the world’s largest manufacturers of socks that counts Nike Inc. and Adidas AG among its clients, said they have seen some orders diverted to them from China. Meanwhile, Gadoon Textile Mills Ltd. has received orders redirected from Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest apparel exporter, and India, the third-largest textile exporter.
