Import of generators in Pakistan surges 38% to Rs192 billion

20 units a day, 100 units a week are sold in summer season

KARACHI: No respite from the chronic power outages kept pushing households to go for alternative arrangements, hence imports and sales of generators skyrocketed during fiscal year 2015-16.

According to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the import of power generating machinery soared 38% to Rs192 billion during the year that ended on June 30, 2016. In terms of dollars, it rose 34% to $1.83 billion.



“Demand for generators has been rising over the years; sales have doubled in the last three to four years,” said Ali Bhai Jonty, who has been selling generators for the last eight years at a Karachi showroom as salesman.

It happened almost three years ago when the PML-N government came to power in the centre and in the biggest province of the country in 2013. The government has since been assuring people that it would end power outages, which it claimed it inherited from the previous government. However, the promises have yet to be fulfilled.

Recently, Minister of State for Water and Power Chaudhry Abid Sher Ali reiterated that the government would put an end to load-shedding in 2018. Businesses have been the worst sufferers from power outages. Earlier, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry reported that the outages had shaved 2% off economic growth every year.



The country continues to face power shortfall of about 5,000 megawatts a day in the summer season, which sometimes rises to 8,000 megawatts in extremely hot weather.

As a matter of fact, the country has an installed power generation capacity of about 22,000 megawatts.

“The summer season encourages a large number of households to buy generators to make their lives less miserable,” said Jonty.

Encircled by six to seven co-workers and dozens of generators on display at the showroom, he said they had recorded sales of about 20 generators a day and close to 100 units in a week in the summer.

“Local markets are flooded with the Chinese-assembled generators. If someone claims to be selling a Japanese, Taiwanese or Korean brand, then he is cheating, as those generators are no more in the market,” he added. “We (showrooms) are selling all China-assembled generators.”

He said the traders were selling generators in the name of multiple brands and advised buyers to make sure that they buy a generator with copper wire winding. “These are available in the categories below 3.5 kilowatts,” he said.



Some of the Chinese brands available in the markets are Loncin, Sanco, Ancor, Lifan, Firman and FPG.

“Generators in the categories above 3.5 kilowatts cannot be made of low-quality copper wire, as poor-quality windings cannot give the required performance at a higher load,” he explained.

Kamran Yousuf, another salesman for generators, said the opening of generator workshops in almost all localities over the past five to six years indicated that a large number of households depended on generators in their daily lives.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2016.

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