Sunday, January 27, 2013 - KARACHI:
Pakistan's yarn export is expected to increase by 10 percent to 825,000 pounds this season (January to June 2013) as against 750,000 pounds during the same period last year to China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Thailand due to greater demand, exporters said on Saturday.
Pakistan usually exports 25 percent of its total production of 3 million pounds of yarn per annum while remaining is always sufficient for the value added apparel sector in the country. The country produces more than 255,000 pounds yarn per month while local consumption including downstream textile sector stands at more than 20,000 pounds per month. Hong Kong buys yarn in a big way because the traders further send the produce to China and Tibet. China is among the major buyers of yarn from Pakistan, said Pakistan Yarn Merchant Association member Ghulam Rabbani. China turned to the countries of South Asia whose cotton yarn is cheaper due to low labour costs and geographical proximity besides imports of cotton yarn is free of Beijing's tough quota limits. Cotton yarn imported from Southeast Asia is at least $100 a tonne cheaper than that produced in China.
Higher cotton yarn import by China is a blessing for Pakistan, Bangladesh and India as labour is cheap besides they are neighbouring countries and save overhead expenses if the cotton is imported from USA. Chinese textile mills buy yarn, processed cheaply in these Asian countries and these countries as a whole import more than 1.6 million cotton bales from India to meet yarn exports.
Increase in yarn imports from China would boost Pakistan and Indian yarn exports besides it would also boost US cotton prices, as the United States is the largest exporter of the fibre to China. Chinese textile mills were turning to neighbours India and Pakistan to buy cotton yarn. Such an attempt by Chinese yarn importers would increase around 10 percent yarn exports from Pakistan.
Chinese textile mills use yarn from India and Pakistan for low-grade products such as towels, T-shirts, jeans, stockings and underwear. China's cotton yarn imports from September to December 2012 rose 59 percent on the year to 419,000 tonnes. There are around 415 spinning units in the country out of which about 172 are working in Kotri, Hyderabad, Nooriabad Industrial Estate and Karachi. (Source: Daily Times)