Pakistan floods hit textile and clothing trade

PAKISTAN: Flooding hits textile and clothing trade

By Ahmed Abdullah | 11 August 2010

Floods in Pakistan are affecting many aspects of the country's textile industry

Pakistan's ongoing flood crisis has hit the country's textile and clothing industry hard, battering cotton crops and local infrastructure.

Due to the lack of inland transportation and damage to the road and rail networks, raw material supplies to the industry have been halted. Export shipments, meanwhile, face severe delays.

Due to the short supply of commodities, prices of all the inputs have soared. Cotton prices in the country have been reached PKR7300 per maund of 37.32 kg (US$2.28 per kg).

The flood is also passing through the cotton growing area of the country - putting around 12m bales (2m tones) of cotton crop in danger. Industry sources forecast substantial industry closures in view of the possible cotton shortages.

In addition, the gas supply to the textile industry has been suspended for another week after the country's largest Qadirpur gas field halted output, while electricity cuts have also increased. Textile workers are also fleeing to their homelands to help with relief works.

The United Nations has termed the flood as the worst ever calamity, perhaps even worse than 2004 tsunami and recent earthquakes, after it affected 13.8m people in Pakistan. Floodwaters have washed away roads, bridges, thousands of acres of standing crops, hundreds of schools and hospitals, and tens of thousands of jobs.

Gohar Ejaz, chairman of APTMA Punjab, said the textile industry is likely to be hit hard, with the unprecedented floods and heavy industry closures leading to massive job losses.

He urged the Government to seek special market access in the US and the EU markets, as they did in the case of Sri Lanka after the tsunami. Ejaz also urged the government to make a special cotton import arrangement with the US in order to keep the industry wheels running.

Sectors: Apparel, Fibres & fabrics, Manufacturing, Sourcing