Pakistan is likely to suffer a loss of nearly 20 percent of its annual value-added textile exports to the US as the sea-storm Sandy has plunged the key business corridors of New York in its wake, exporters said on Wednesday. They feared that their payments for textile exports maybe delayed from US importers. They said that the scale of destruction to the New York economy is "too big" to allow retail businesses to normalize immediately.
"Pakistan's two key textile products including home textile and value-added garments will be badly impacted from the calamity in the US," Chief Co-ordinator, Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufactures and Exporters Association (Prgmea), Ijaz Khokhar told Business Recorder.
He said that the country's total annual exports of home textiles and readymade garments stand for roughly $2.5 billion to the US, of which New York is the key buying hub of Pakistani products. "Chinese textiles will also suffer from the calamity in the Atlantic," he believed.
The chief co-ordinator of Prgmea said "the hostile weather has forced the US, one of the key business hub for textile - Broadway, to shut down, which has sent a bad signal for Pakistani exporters".
He pointed out that the stockpiled textile cargo at the US western harbours and airports is believed to have been badly damaged by the storm. He said that the calamity has increased concerns for Pakistani exporters who have delivered their cargo to their importers, and fear a huge financial loss.
"Those textile exporters who have shipped their products on credit are expected to suffer more as payment from their importers may not reach them because of the damage which the storm has caused the investors," he voiced the fear.
Ijaz Khokhar said that Christmas sales may not take off at a usual pace this year because of the public plight and their efforts to recover from the calamity. "If they have anything left in their pockets, they will first go for rebuilding their damaged houses and not for buying textiles," he said.
The calamity will have far-reaching effects on the individual businessman's economy and similarly on the public, he said, adding that New York businesses and life are not expected to return to normality soon. He also raised the apprehension whether the piled up textile cargo that has survived the storm would be saleable in the US markets. He added that the calamity was likely to weaken public purchasing power.
The leading textile exporter also urged the government to take steps to introduce a market diversification plan to help the country's dwindling textile share in the US market revive. "The commercial consular should speed up their efforts for seeking out new markets particularly in Latin America and the western coast of US so that the immense loss from Sandy could be overcome," said Ijaz Khokhar.