The estimates for the size of cotton crop remain same around 12.5 million local weight bales this season. Except small amount of seed-cotton, all cotton crop has been harvested and of this some 12.0 million bales are expected to arrive in ginning factories by the end of this month.
Textile mills were active only in picking better grade cotton between Rs 2,600 and 2,650 per maund ex-gin while the sellers of average and lower grade cottons kept waited for prospective buyers. In fact, most of the unsold cotton is lying with the ginners of Upper Sindh and they are much over slow buying of the mills.
One ginner said that for picking yellow, dead and damaged cotton, he has to incur Rs 50,000 per week extra. He further said that carrying charges for one maund of lint cotton cost him Rs 47 per month. He said that he was not in favour of holding sales in hope of better price because the carrying charges for one month are as high as Rs 50 per month.
The Textile mills force the ginners carry cotton for longer period at their own cost. In slack market and also otherwise, the spinner-buyers buy lint cotton at credit and payments are delayed unduly while same buyers buy foreign cotton against cash Letter of credits.
The spinner-buyers say that off-take of yarn is slow and its prices are weak which slow down cotton buying interests. Local lint cotton prices are also not compatible with export prices in view of weak prices in international market.
It is a good news that the government appears interested in introduction of Bt Cotton varieties in cotton from next crop. Pakistan has to adopt all other necessary technologies in all fields of agriculture to increase our productivity and production to meet our growing cotton requirements.
The plan to establish a ginning institute at Multan has been under consideration of the Government of Pakistan for the last 15 years and necessary consultation and planning has been done but practically nothing has been done in this regard.
The Pakistan Cotton Ginner's Association (PCGA) can easily establish its own Ginning Institute by collecting Rs 3 per bale from its members as the ginning institute would benefit the ginning industry but perhaps they are not interested in it. The name of Pakistan Cotton Ginners' Association reflects that the Association is for the interests of the ginners whereas it should be for the interest of ginning industry as its members are ginning factories and not the ginners. The prime aim of the Association is to safeguard the interests of the ginning industry and not the interests of ginners. The ginning industry is permanent but the ginners remain changing. As such, the name of Pakistan Cotton Ginners' Association should be changed to Pakistan Cotton Ginning Association like All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and the Karachi Cotton Association. The Karachi Cotton Association has undertaken the job of preparation of export types for the smooth working and benefit of the export trade.
The foreign buyers of Pakistan cotton are very much confused over export types under same name prepared by different exporters but with great variation in grade. Hopefully, the export trade would improve on introduction of standardised export types by the KCA and some would create healthy competition among the exporters. As our ginning machines are of poor standard, consume more power, produce poor quality lint cotton at high cost. As such, there is an urgent need of standardisation of ginning machinery, standardisation of ginning system and cost effectiveness to make ginning industry competitive and profitable.
Another factor, which is responsible for undue competition in purchasing seed-cotton is excess ginning capacity, which can be overcome by increasing cotton production.
On the other hand, a very important sector of our economy is the textile sector, which contributes up to 66 percent out of total export earnings.
Presently, textile sector appears to be hot soup; some reasons being genuine and some due to low efficiency and poor managements. As a matter of fact, international business policies, political developments, poor agriculture conditions and deterioration in law and order situations tend to make world textile markets vibrant making the demand and supply position price system fluctuating.
After introduction of free-trade policies under WTO from January, 2005, most of the countries are demanding changes in their trade and commerce, economic and financial policies to adjust in the changing world trade circumstances. Since, Pakistan has a strong textile industry, sufficient raw cotton as raw material for spinning industry and sufficient labour force to operate it efficiently but the results are not encouraging.
Today, in world textile exports, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey and Sri Lanka are the leaders. Pakistan has edge of over Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as these countries do not have their own cotton as raw material but their performance in textile exports has been commendable.
From the statistics of textile exports to USA and European Union during six-month period of January - June, 06, we do not find Pakistan in good position.
The performance of Bangladesh in exports of textile apparel appears better than Pakistan what to speak of India and China. From the study of these figures our readers would form better understanding of the textile performance of some prominent countries and the places of each country in competition with others.
EXPORTS OF APPARELS TO USA (JAN 06 TO JUNE 06)
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Countries Amount Share in percentage
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China $6,618 millions 20.5
India "1,810" 5.6
Bangladesh "1,334" 4.1
Sri Lanka "817" 2.5
Pakistan "623" 1.9 (Less than 50pc of Bangladesh)
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Exports of Apparels to European Countries (Jan 06 to June 06)
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Country Value of exports Share in percentage
China $3,839 millions 16.2
Bangladesh "1,117" 4.7
India "1,096" 4.6
Sri Lanka "253" 1.1
Pakistan "240" 1.0
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Average price of exports of Apparels (Jan 06 to June 06)
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Country Av Price per Sq Meter
China $ 2.80
India "3.85
Bangladesh "2.17
Pakistan "1.94
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Knitted Clothing Rate (Jan 06 to June 06)
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Country Rate per Kilogram
China $11.92
India "14.08
Bangladesh "8.17
Pakistan "7.46
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Average price of woven cloth exports to USA (Jan 06 to June 06)
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Country Rate per Kilogram
China $ 14.20
Bangladesh "24.09
India "9.61
Pakistan "8.12
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