MULTAN : All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma), Punjab chapter is holding a one-day strike (from 9 am to 5 pm) on Thursday, Aaj News reported.
Banners inscribed with their demands were displayed at prominent places of the textile mills, said Muhammad Anees, vice-chairman of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma), Punjab chapter, while briefing newsmen here on Wednesday.
He said that all 350 textile mills would observe complete strike on March 18 (today) as the yarn crisis had deepened and mediamen would be invited to see the closed textile units. He said: "We are protesting due to the anti-spinners policies adopted by the federal Ministry of Textiles".
He said that members of Aptma from Punjab had endorsed the decision of the central body.
Announcing the strike after the general body meeting of Aptma, Anees accused the Federal Textile Minister of favouring Faisalabad-based value-added sector lobby by restricting monthly export of yarn to only 35,000 tons.
He said Aptma members produce 240,000 tons of yarn per month while the domestic industry retains a capacity to utilise only 180,000 tons. He said that out of 60,000 tons surplus yarn the government has allowed export of only 35,000 tons, leaving the mills with 25,000 tons surplus yarn, which the local industry cannot consume.
He said that this restriction has been deliberately imposed to artificially create yarn glut in the country so that yarn prices come under pressure. This, he added, "is against the stated principles of free market economy". He said yarn prices would stay high because of high rates of cotton.
The spinners, he added, would prefer closing the mills instead of selling yarn at below cost. He said that out of 350 Aptma members, 100 spinning mills produce yarn exclusively for export.
He said the yarn export quota for the month of March would be completed on March 17 after which these mills would be left high and dry as they do not produce yarn used by the local industry. He said the strike on March 18 would coincide with the day when these mills would be forced to close down. Anees said if the government failed to lift the ban on export of yarn after the strike, which would be first in past 16 years, then Aptma would convene another general body meeting on March 20, in which resolution for indefinite strike would be passed.
The Aptma vice chairman said spinners have decided to announce strike after all options were exhausted due to the stubborn attitude of the Federal Minister for Textile.
He said closure of spinning mills would spell out disaster for the textile industry of the country, as the entire textile chain would be forced to cease production.
He said the planners should realise that there is no yarn shortage in the country, which is evident from increase in exports of all value-added textile products in January. He said the rates of yarn are high not only in Pakistan but around the world because of historic high cotton rates.
Anees announced that Aptma has disassociated itself from the Federal Ministry of Textiles and in view of its partiality suggested to rename it as Faisalabad Ministry of Textiles. He said once a resolution on indefinite strike is passed by Aptma, its members would take out processions and may even resort to a long march. He regretted that the frequent tinkering with the yarn exports had eroded the confidence of global yarn buyers who consider Pakistan as unreliable supplier. He said when there would be no exports of yarn from Pakistan after March 18, because of quota restrictions, the foreign buyers would divert orders to India, "our main competitor" in this field. Spinners said that the government had failed to achieve its objective despite first restricting yarn exports to 50,000 tons per month in January and then to 35,000 tons in the fourth week of February.
The knitwear and garment sector entrepreneurs are divided on the way to tackle the issue. One segment favours a complete ban on yarn exports to force the spinners to bring down rates. Others want the government to provide subsidy to the clothing sector on domestic yarn purchased by them as they find it unfair to put pressure on spinners as cotton rates have increased from Rs 3,200 per maund at the start of cotton season to Rs 5,800 per maund now. They said the option of duty-free yarn import from India is available with the clothing sector but they have not exercised this option because the imported yarn is costlier than the local yarn.
Copyright Aaj News, 2010
Copyright Business Recorder, 2010
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