All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has conveyed its shock and dismay on the news that Wapda intends to embark on another round of loadshedding from the coming week.
The spokesman of Aptma said here on Monday that the news of loadshedding had come as a bullet from the blue for the textile industry, which was already facing sever crisis due to unmanageably high cost of production and unfair competition from subsidised regional competitors.
He said that industry was unable to absorb increase in operational costs on account of the recent 10 percent hike in power tariff, already more than 500,000 spindles getting power from Wapda have been shut down.
He further said that textile was an industry of continuous process and power disruptions and tripping adversely affected the quality of the whole production process.
He said that in the face of falling market share due to unfair regional competition, the industry is struggling hard to operate at full capacity to avoid defaulting on its export commitments. He mentioned that in this fragile position, loadshedding would be the final "death blow" to this industry. Export markets, once lost to neighbouring countries, would become almost impossible to regain.
The spokesman said that the textile industry had become an essential industry as far as the country's balance of trade position was concerned and urged the Prime Minister to spare this vital industry from all kinds of loadshedding.