Despite price stability during the last one year, sale of imported and locally manufactured sewing machines shrank by 50 percent due to law and order situation and poor purchasing power of the masses, dealers of sewing machines said.
They said that peak season for the sale of these machines started a month before the advent of Ramazan, but now the sale remained at only 50 percent at the Jubilee Cloth Market.
"Increasing prices of essential commodities, high rate of unemployment, under-paid jobs, law and order situation, besides stagnant rainwater in the city markets, have compelled the customers to keep away from the markets, hence the decline in sale of sewing machines," they said.
Dealers said that locally manufactured sewing machines for domestic use were available in the range of Rs 1,400-1,600, while the machines of industrial use were sold in the range of Rs 8,500-10,000.
Branded locally produced machines, including SL-II, HA-II, etc, were tagged at Rs 3,000, they said, and added that unbranded machines were being sold at Rs 1,500. Used computerised sewing machines, imported from Japan, were available in the range of Rs 1,800-5,000, they said.
About the sale of Chinese machines, they said that they were sold in a huge quantity and were mostly bought for donation purposes. However, these machines were cheaper in rates as compared to local one. They said since the Chinese products were not long lasting and durable, the customers, therefore, preferred locally made machines, prices of which remained during the last one year. They pointed out that the import of Chinese sewing machines were still on the rise, which had hit the local market.