Pakistan’s textile exports decreased by 5% in January of this fiscal when compared with December 2021, starting to lose the growth momentum, which traders blame on the prevalent gas crisis that has hit the industries. This negative growth in textile exports comes days after Adviser to Prime Minister Razzak Dawood claimed that Pakistan grabbed orders from its competitors when these countries shut down due to rising Covid-19 cases.
Textile exports increased 17% in January 2022 compared to the same month of the last fiscal January 2021; however, a visible decline was witnessed in the month-on-month review data review.
Khurram Mukhtar, Patron-in-Chief Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA), said that Pakistan managed to ensure an interrupted supply of textile goods in the global market when its competitors went under lockdown to tackle Covid cases. The PTEA official, based in Faisalabad, said that out of $5 billion investment, $3 billion worth of textile machinery was imported, and $2 billion were put in the form of equity.
Asif Inam (APTMA’s member) said that investment would go in vain because of the gas crisis, which has hit the industry so hard that it lost the “growth momentum, which was gained by thriving on the orders of international buyers.” He anticipated that the five percent decline in textile exports in January compared to December would grow higher in February and March due to the inability of exporters to honor their commitments made to the international buyers. He regretted the government’s mismanagement of the gas issue in winter when short supply severely hit the export-oriented sector. “If imported gas was expensive, the government could have taken us into confidence that industry has to pay extra for a high price of gas,” said Inam, claiming that the industry would have been ready to buy gas at a higher price for the sake of improving exports. However, unfortunately, the government did nothing to handle the gas shortage issue, which caused a decrease in exports.
