All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) is set to hold an emergency meeting on December 31st (today) against gas curtailment on SNGPL network. It may be noted that the SNGPL has curtailed gas supply to the APTMA members from December 25th until further order.
Textile industry sources said the APTMA leadership might take a bold decision of bringing textile workers on streets against the SNGPL. It may be noted that the workers of textile processing mills are already out on the streets in Faisalabad against supply cuts. A catastrophic impact of gas curtailment to textile industry is eminent leading to massive unemployment, loses to cotton growers and a decline of $2 billion in textile exports by the year-end.
The textile industry has witnessed record gas curtailment for 21 days during the month of December and supply line of textile value chain has badly been disrupted with more than 30 percent production loses leading to imbalances across the textile value chain. Not only this, the Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) growth has fallen to the lowest ebb and the textile millers have withheld billions of dollars investment plans due to energy shortage, particularly the gas shortage. The current account balance is presently under pressure by 257 percent in first five months of current fiscal, leading to a possible currency depreciation, which would prove fatal to the economy.
Textile industry circles said the industry in Pakistan is factually a vendor industry and a slowdown in fresh orders for a longer period would have serious implications, leading to a question mark on its existence and sustainability. A drop in fresh orders due to energy shortage is already benefiting the competitors and it would be very difficult to retain position in the international market once the customers have developed a mindset of unreliability towards Pakistan, he warned, adding: A disruption in energy supply would tantamount to suicidal attempt prompted by the short-sightedness of the economic managers.
According to these circles, only a prudent use of energy sources could be the way forward and the government should itself decide about the priority of different segments of economy on gas supply. It is the government to decide whether it should extinguish 358MMCFD into transport sector or 200MMCFD to textile industry in order to earn foreign exchange through increase in exports of the country, they stressed.
They have urged the economic managers of the country to strategize efficient and prudent use of gas by keeping supply to textile industry intact in order to save jobs of 15 million textile workers, carrying a burden of five family members each in the country. They have further expressed the hope that the government would keep gas supply to textile industry intact in the month of January and onwards, as assured by the President Asif Ali Zardari, while declaring 2011 as the year of textile industry.
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