350 textile units closed in two years: The News

By Shahid ShahKARACHI: The sun of Pakistan’s textile sector is now setting. After a long battle with regional competitors - one of the largest job providers - the textile sector has closed around 350 factories in two years eliminating hundreds of thousands of jobs.The textile sector contributes more than 60 per cent to the country’s total exports, has a share of 46 per cent in total manufacturing and employs 38 per cent of the total workforce. It has a share of 8.5 per cent in the GDP.The textile ministry has acknowledged closure of 90 big units in 2008 alone. Each company employed a minimum of 1,000 workers. “Hundreds of thousands have lost jobs,” Federal Adviser on Textile Dr Mirza Ikhtiar Baig, told The News.According to the minister, these factories were closed in sub-sectors like hosiery and knitwear, polyester filament, spinning, garments, denim and silk and rayon.Baig said that the higher mark-up rates, energy crises, law and order situation and the global recession were the major reasons behind job cuts from textile sector.

A company cannot sustain itself if the production units are shut 15 days a month due to power outage, he said.The import of readymade garments from China has also affected the local manufacturer. “It started from shoes, pencils and ballpoint pens and now happening with the garments,” Baig said.The record of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA) shows closure of 245 companies from the hosiery and knitwear sub-sector alone in last five years. Of which 99 units were closed in 2008 alone. These units employed 100 to more than a few thousand workers each.The 99 factories that closed down in 2008 seven were in Karachi, 78 in Faisalabad, six in Sialkot, two in Islamabad and one factory was operating in Kasur. Before that up to 2007, another 146 mills had shutdown in Karachi. Most of these mills were knitwear manufacturers.

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